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Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday, public holidays 10 am - 6 pm
Closed on: 1 January, 1 May, 1 November, 24 and 25 December
Admission charges
Adults € 8.00
Vienna Card € 7.00
Students aged over 19, senior citizens, disabled persons € 5.00
Children aged 19 and under free admission
Concessions for members of Club Ö1 and members of Friends of the Fine Arts
Annual pass adults € 20.00
Annual pass students € 15.00
Group reduction price on application
Guided Tours
German tours from September to June on Sundays at 10.30 am
Special tours on demand, please call +43 (1) 58 816 - 2201 or - 2222
Surrounded by the artists' studios and workshops on the first floor of the Academy of Fine Arts is a world-ranking collection of European painting from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
In its character as a pinacoteca - a gallery exclusively dedicated to paintings - and in its tradition, the Paintings Gallery is comparable to collections of international standing at historical academies of art such as the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan or the Galleria dell'Accademia in Venice. Unlike these, however, it still constitutes part of the organisational structure of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts and is inseparably linked to its profile.
The Academy's initial holdings consisted of prize-winning works from the Academy's annual awards ceremony and pieces painted for admission to membership of the Academy during the 18th century. It was not until 1822, when the imperial diplomat Count Lamberg-Sprinzenstein donated his internationally-renowned collection of about 800 paintings to the Academy, that the Paintings Gallery as such was established. According to the terms of Count Lamberg-Sprinzenstein's generous bequest, the collection was opened to the general public, thus becoming the first institutional art museum in Austria. Over the years the holdings have been extended by further smaller donations. Today about 180 paintings from the collection are permanently exhibited in the splendid historistic ambience conceived by the danish architect Theophil Hansen for the presentation of the paintings. After recent refurbishment in 2010 the Paintings Gallery is now able to offer also a modern museum-infrastructure to its visitors.
The works on display include highlights of European painting such as the triptych of the Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch as well as a series of exuberant small-scale oil sketches by Rubens. Dutch painting of the 17th century is represented in almost all of its many facets from Rembrandt to Ruisdael and De Hooch, while the Italian, French and Spanish schools are showcased in works by Botticelli, Titian, Murillo, Claude, Tiepolo and Guardi. The heyday of the Vienna Academy in late 18th century is represented by Maulbertsch, Füger or Lampi.
