
Trade Fair Palace
Prague, Czech Republic
The story
When the Trade Fair Palace opened in Prague in 1928, it was one of the largest functionalist buildings in the world, a vast hall of concrete, glass and light built for commercial fairs. Le Corbusier, visiting, is said to have been both impressed and unsettled by its sheer scale. After a fire gutted it in 1974, it was rebuilt to house the National Gallery's modern art.
Behind that severe façade is the best of Czech modern painting and a remarkable stock of French art bought early by the young Czechoslovak state, with Picasso given a room of his own and works by Monet, Renoir, Klimt and van Gogh. Rodin and Munch appear too.
The seven floors climb around a huge central atrium, and the building itself, all daylight and clean lines, is treated as the first exhibit you walk into.
Collection
8 works
The VirginGustav Klimt, 1913
Green Wheat Field with CypressVincent van Gogh, 1889
Myself: Portrait – LandscapeHenri Rousseau, 1890
GismondaAlphonse Mucha, 1894
Saint SebastianBohumil Kubišta, 1912
At the Moulin Rouge: Two women waltzingHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892
LoversPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875
Bonjour Monsieur GauguinPaul Gauguin, 1889