Neue Pinakothek

Neue Pinakothek is one of the world’s most significant museums for 18th and 19th European century art.

The museum, together with Alte Pinakothek, Pinakothek der Moderne, and museums at Königsplatz, forms Munich‘s “Kunstareal”, an arts district.

Neue Pinakothek Munich Germany

PHOTO: The art museum’s postmodern building from 1981 is a design by architect Alexander Freiherr von Branca.

The museum was founded by Bavarian King Ludwig I in 1853.

Originally, it was housed in a Friedrich von Gärtner and August von Voit designed museum building, but that location was completely destroyed during the Second World War.

The new, current postmodern building was designed by Alexander Freiherr von Branca, and it was opened to the public in 1981.

The museum’s collections are a “counterweight” and a continuity to the art collection on display at Alte Pinakothek, which, for its part, exhibits “old masters” artworks, up to the 17th century.

With time, it became apparent that Munich also needed an art museum for art from 20th century to the modern day…

…which is why there is now a third “Pinakothek” museum in Munich, “Pinakothek der Moderne” (pinakothek.de/pinakothek-der-moderne/), open since 2002.

The museum collections include around 3,000 artworks from European classical period to Art Nouveau, but only 400 paintings and 50 sculptures are shown at one time.

Of the collection, highlights include:

  • Francisco de Goya: “Plucked Turkey
  • Thomas Gainsborough: “Mrs. Thomas Hibbert
  • J. M. W. Turner: “Ostende
  • Peter von Cornelius: “The Three Mary’s at the Grave
  • Gustave Courbet: “Landscape near Maizières
  • Gustav Klimt: “Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein
  • Edvard Munch: “Woman in Red Dress (Street in Aasgaardstrand)
  • Auguste Rodin: “Crouching Woman

Neue Pinakothek

Address: Barer Strasse 29, 80799 München, Germany
Official website: Pinakothek.de/neue-pinakothek/


The most significant part of the collection, however, is of French impressionist art, with masterpieces such as…

  • Pierre-Auguste Renoir: “Portrait of a Young Woman“,
  • Edouard Manet: “Claude Monet Painting on His Studio Boat“,
  • Claude Monet: “The Argenteuil Bridge“,
  • Paul Cézanne: “The Railway Cutting“,
  • Paul Gauguin: “Te Tamari No Atua (Nativity)“,
  • Edgar Degas: “Woman Ironing“,
  • Camille Pissarro: “Street in Upper Norwood“, and
  • Vincent van Gogh: “Sunflowers“.