Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

The Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is considered one of the most important collections of European painting from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries in the world. The museum building, designed by Gottfried Semper and completed in 1855, houses a permanent exhibition of approximately 700 paintings, including major works of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting, German painting from the Dürer era, and significant collections of French, Spanish, and German Baroque painting. The works are presented in dialogue with ancient and pre-modern sculptures of the Dresden Skulpturensammlung.

The collection of paintings owes its existence primarily to the wide-ranging artistic interests and legendary passion for collecting of the Saxon Electors Frederick Augustus I (1670–1733) and his son Frederick Augustus II (1696–1763). Within a few decades and with the help of a network of skilled diplomats and art connoisseurs, they succeeded in acquiring entire collections including the Wackerbarth Collection with 180 Dutch paintings and the Waldstein collection. In addition, they made targeted purchases of selected masterpieces such as Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, Rubens’ The Boar Hunt, Rembrandt’s The Abduction of Ganymede, and Raphael’s Sistine Madonna.

A highlight of the gallery is its collection of Netherlandish painting, with Jan van Eyck’s wonderful Madonna Triptych and a precious series of tapestries from the Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst. With artists such as Gillis van Coninxloo, Paul Bril, Joos de Momper, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Hendrick van Balen, Roelant Savery, and Frans Francken, painting on the cusp of the seventeenth century is superbly represented. The highlight of Flemish Baroque painting is found in the main galleries, which showcase entire groups of works by Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Snyders, Jacob Jordaens, and Anthony van Dyck. Painting from the Northern Netherlands is represented by seven paintings by Rembrandt, as well as a strong collection of history and portrait paintings by his students, collaborators, and successors. Two works by Johannes Vermeer are among the collection’s masterpieces, as is the outstanding ensemble of paintings by the Leiden Fine Painters—a particular passion of Augustus I. Another distinctive feature of the Dresden collection is the high quality and variety of Dutch-style cabinet paintings, which are presented in thematically organized small cabinets.

Uta Neidhardt, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings (September 2026)