Trade Fair Palace: Best Tips For Visiting In 2024

The Trade Fair Palace (in Czech, Veletržní Palác) is an art museum located in Holešovice, one of Prague’s most eclectic neighborhoods. Housing the modern art collection of the Prague National Gallery (in Czech, Národní Galerie Praha), it’s the largest building in this centuries-old institution of Central Europe!

At the Trade Fair Palace, you can admire the work of important Czech artists, as well as masterpieces by the most prestigious painters of the modern world, such as André Derain, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Claude Monet, and Gustav Klimt!

So, do you want to know more about the Trade Fair Palace: Best Tips For Visiting In 2024? Keep reading!

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Trade Fair Palace
Trade Fair Palace

Brief History of the Trade Fair Palace

The Trade Fair Palace was originally designed as a trade fair space – hence the name. Built between 1925 and 1928 under the guidance of Czech architects Josef Fuchs and Oldřich Tyl, this imposing building became the headquarters of the Prague National Gallery in 1976.

On August 14th, 1974, a violent fire that lasted six days severely threatened the structure of the Trade Fair Palace. As a result, the museum underwent lengthy reconstruction and renovation, which was only completed in the 1990s.

How to Get to the Trade Fair Palace

The Trade Fair Palace is located at number 47 Dukelských Hrdinů, a street with neo-Renaissance buildings and local shops. From here, you can also visit the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua (450 meters), the National Technical Museum (1100 meters), and the National Agriculture Museum (1200 meters).

Due to its excellent location in the Holešovice district, the Trade Fair Palace is served by several types of public transport: metro (line C, Vltavská station) and tram (lines 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 17, 25, or 26 stops Veletržní palác or Strossmayerovo náměstí).

Opening Hours & Ticket Prices

The Trade Fair Palace is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm, and on the first Wednesday of the month the museum only closes at 8 pm.

As far as tickets are concerned, they cost 250 CZK (normal fare) or 140 CZK (reduced fare for under 26s, students and over 65s), while those under 15 don’t pay entry. But you can check all the practical information on the official website of the Trade Fair Palace!

What to See at the Trade Fair Palace

“Femme Assise” (André Derain)

“Seated Woman” (in French, “Femme Assise”) is an oil painting by André Derain, one of the founders of Fauvism and one of the main names of Cubism in France. Nevertheless, the portrait is a neoclassicist work, in the style of the old masters.

Created between 1920 and 1923, “Seated Woman” is the result of a trip that André Derain took to Italy in the early 1920s. At this time, the artist experimented with the chiaroscuro technique and how light is emitted from a single point on the board.

“Champ de Blé Vert” (Vincent Van Gogh)

“Green Wheat Field” (in French, “Champ de Blé Vert”) is an oil painting that Vincent Van Gogh produced during his stay at the former Sanatorium of Saint-Paul de Mausole, in the commune of Saint-Rémy-de- Provence, in the summer of 1889.

With the Alpilles Mountains as a backdrop, Vincent Van Gogh describes a wheat field in shades of yellow and green, where a small white house hides. A tall, solitary cypress tree forms the center of the image, conveying a sense of balance and serenity.

“Maison et Ferme au Jas de Bouffan” (Paul Cézanne)

“House and Farm at Jas de Bouffan” (in French, “Maison et Ferme au Jas de Bouffan”) is an oil painting by Paul Cézanne, produced between 1885 and 1887. The subject is an 18th-century estate in Aix-en-Provence, where the French artist spent most of his life.

This painting balances solid geometric compositions with transparent layers of paint. The example displayed at the Trade Fair Palace is not the only one Paul Cézanne made of his property, as you can find others in Frankfurt, Saint Petersburg, Washington, or New York!

“Portrait d’Antonin Proust” (Édouard Manet)

“Portrait of Antonin Proust” (in French, “Portrait d’Antonin Proust”) is an oil painting where Édouard Manet pays homage to his longtime friend Antonin Proust, a French journalist, politician, and critic. Purchased by the Prague National Gallery in 1968, this portrait was designed between 1855 and 1856.

As a politician, Antonin Proust was Minister of Arts in the government of Léon Gambetta – which technically makes him the first “Minister of Culture” of the French Republic. Furthermore, the artist, collector, and exhibition curator was also one of the co-founders of the École du Louvre.

“Autoportrait” (Pablo Picasso)

“Self-Portrait” (in French, “Autoportrait”) is an oil painting by Pablo Picasso, one of the most famous artists in the world. Completed in 1907, the work was acquired in 1911 by the Czech cubist art collector Vincenc Kramář, who donated it to the Prague National Gallery in 1960.

“Self-Portrait” is seen as one of the most expressive paintings from Pablo Picasso’s “African Period”. Inspired by African masks and Iberian sculptural art, the artist depicts a rigid face marked by giant, mesmerizing eyes, as well as a pointed, triangular nose.

“Moi-Même, Portrait-Paysage” (Henri Rousseau)

“Me-Myself, Portrait-Landscape” (in French, “Moi-Même, Portrait-Paysage”) is an oil painting by the French painter Henri Rousseau, the greatest exponent of naïve art. Signed in 1890, it was conceived at the beginning of his career – when the artist was already forty-six years old!

In “Me-Myself, Portrait-Landscape”, Henri Rousseau appears confident and serious about his new profession as a painter. And if you look closely, you can read the names of his first wife Clémence and his second wife Joséphine, which were engraved on the palette the painter holds in his hand!

“Promenáda v Riegrových Sadech” (Bohumil Kubišta)

“Walk in the Riegr Gardens” (in Czech, “Promenáda v Riegrových Sadech”) is an oil painting by Bohumil Kubišta, a Czech painter and art critic considered one of the founders of the country’s modern painting. Dating from 1908, this painting arrived in the collection of the Prague National Gallery in 1960.

“A Walk in the Riegr Gardens” is a work greatly influenced by the style of Edvard Munch, especially in the general composition of the landscape and figures. Still, Bohumil Kubišta made it more geometric and dynamic, foreshadowing his approach to the Cubist movement.

“Verger en Fleurs” (Claude Monet)

“Orchard in Blossom” (in French, “Verger en Fleurs”) is an oil painting by French impressionist painter Claude Monet. Its origins date back to 1879, although the masterpiece only joined the “Collection of 19th Century Art and Classical Modernism” of the Prague National Gallery in 1963.

“Orchard in Blossom” presents Vétheuil, a commune in the Île-de-France region whose landscapes were a recurring theme in the works of Claude Monet. At this stage of his career, the artist revealed a certain Japanese influence – which continued until 1886, when Claude Monet was already living in Giverny!

“Die Jungfrau” (Gustav Klimt)

“The Virgin” (in German, “Die Jungfrau”) is an oil painting by Gustav Klimt, not only a representative of Symbolism and the Vienna Secession but also the most famous Austrian painter in the world! Produced in 1913, the painting was purchased by the Prague National Gallery the following year.

“The Virgin” depicts a central figure wearing a dress in shades of blue and purple, who is surrounded by six women tangled in an abundance of flowers. Each of them represents a specific phase of a woman’s life cycle, alluding to love, sexuality, fertility, and regeneration.

“Amorfa. Dvoubarevná fuga” (František Kupka)

“Amorphous. Fugue in Two Colors” (in Czech, “Amorphous. Dvoubarevná fuga”) is an oil painting by František Kupka, one of the most prominent Czech painters and graphic artists of the first half of the 20th century. Created in 1912, the work was acquired by the Prague National Gallery in 1953.

František Kupka lived much of his life in the suburbs of Paris, which is why he is better known as Frank Kupka or François Kupka. Here, the Czech artist helped found Orphism (or Orphic Cubism) – an artistic movement derived from Cubism, which focuses on pure abstraction and bright colors.

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