The Solly Collection 1821-2021: from picture "chaos" to painting gallery

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Georg Giese, 1532, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

The Gemäldegalerie’s nex exhibition, The Solly Collection 1821-2021 marks the 200th anniversary by the king of Prussia of the acquisition of some 3,000 paintings from the Berlin-based English merchant Edward Solly (1776–1844). Many of these works were originally displayed in at the Königliches Museum which later became the Gemäldegalerie . They include masterpieces of the Italian Trecento and Quattrocento - such as by Giotto and Botticelli, as well as outstanding examples of Early Netherlandish painting, such as by Jan van Eyck (part of whose Ghent Altarpiece was only returned to Belgium after WWII). The exhibition seeks to shed light on the ways in which the esteem of individual paintings has shifted over time.