Information

The New Palace (Neues Palais) is the last royal residence King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) built from 1763 -1769 in his park Sanssouci in Potsdam. It was a demonstration of the Prussian state’s undiminished power and wealth following the deprivations of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). The King rarely stayed here himself; instead, the palace was mostly used to accommodate guests and for celebrations. In strong contrast to the rather intimate Sanssouci Palace, the large complex of the New Palace served representational needs. Grand banquet halls, splendid galleries, sumptuously furnished and decorated suites, and the theatre await visitors in its interior.

Selected seventeenth and eighteenth-century artworks can be viewed in their original context. Especially the antechambers of the apartments are richly decorated with more than 40 paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists as well as 140 paintings by Italian and French artists like Andrea Celesti, Guido Reni, Artemisia Gentileschi, Luca Giordano, Jean Restout, Antoine Pesne, Nicolas Lancret, Jean-Baptiste Pater and Carle and Amédée van Loo. Although the painting collection suffered significant war losses, a large number of works from the original eighteenth-century display have been preserved, supplemented by paintings from other palaces of the Hohenzollern family. The highlights of the collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings include the Adoration of the Magi designed by Peter Paul Rubens for his friend Balthasar Moretus and executed by Anthony van Dyck around 1620, and Van Dyck’s early Adoration of the Shepherds as well as other works by Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Paul de Vos, Jan Boeckhorst, Frans Francken, Frans Floris, Ferdinand Bol, Abraham Bloemaert and many more.

Dr. Alexandra Nina Bauer, Curator of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings (May 2020)

The New Palace is administered by the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens.