Vilnius Picture Gallery — Attraction in Vilnius

The permanent exhibition is largely a collection of portraits of Lithuanian aristocracy, intellectual and artistic elite, which underscores the influence of the Polish aristocratic portrait tradition on the artistic vision of its junior partner in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. (Might be of interest for those who struggle to differentiate Lithuania from its Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, artistically influenced in a very different way, by a protestant German culture of the Hanseatic league of independent cities with merchants and guilds as important social actors and art buyers.)

The current temporary exhibition (till 12 Jan 2020) is curated in a modern and engaging manner, it is dedicated to the history of buildings of the central street (gatve) Didźioji, the Picture Gallery is situated on (in a palace of one of the big four Lithuanian aristocratic families). The curators supplied every exhibit with vivid juicy quotes of an aristocratic gossip girl of XIX c. - the first Lithuanian female novelist, who wrote in French, the language of European aristocracy of her time.

The permanent collection of Lithuanian art of XVI-XIX cc is very good, but it is unfortunately presented without any engaging context - the portraits without any story or history behind them for the visitor to delve into. The permanent collection should definitely borrow the approach from the temporary one. Antique history subjects weren't familiar to me (for example, who was Sophonisbe and why she had to be poisoned? Why Scythians came to Darius, the king of Persia?) The closer to XIX c, the more understandable the paintings appear to be.

Back to the female novelist, it's interesting that despite her country's politically understandable pinning high hopes on Napoleon, she clearly sympathizes with the Russian emperor Alexander, who apparently had better human skills than Napoleon. One of her anecdotes is a XIX century me-too moment: one of Napoleon's generals stayed in her father's palace, a maid entered his room without knocking on the door, the man was exiting the bathroom apparently disrobed, the maid was shocked. According to the female novelist it is implied the man was in the wrong instead of the maid should have knocked on the door before entering.

No audioguide. The lady at the cash register gave me an amazing paper street guide to Didźioji gatve historical buildings to walk around. Admission 3 euro. A manned cloakroom. Both exhibitions are blended, the temporary is somewhere in the middle of the permanent one. It was helpful that I read in previous reviews that the entrance to the gallery is not the main central far away one, but the side one, very next...

It is soo interesting to explore the artifacts EVERY time visiting the gallery. It is presented deep dive into an artist within his family background, childhood surroundings and origins representation, parallels and works of family members in alignment, even real historical life small documentation specimens. The theme is very saturated and fulfilled in interior color and envolving furniture, not just picture on the wall. Curators did their job so prepared, that information about the author or picture is so comprehensively delivered in historical content and artistic interpretations. Every time I leave filled up with art, classics, and history time knowledgement. There are subtle historical elements with artifacts from earlier exhibition. In some other exhibition there is very unusual, new text descriptions, eye catching design decisions, personal artists viewpoint and funny lifetime events. I met and saw historical artifacts (business cards), mentioned in Giedrius Drukteinis books vividly. It is so useful to expand one's horizons of the world in one museum.

The museum aka gallery is very different and enrichment from others in full: historically, persona cognition, interior fulfillment, places for children busyness, different perspectives. Thanks for your great job in...

Amazing art space where successfully collide 18th, 19th and 20th century art. We paid 9eur (adult+student, since they have student discounts).* The whole visit took us less than 1h, however it could be much less rushed if we arrived a bit earlier before the end of the opening hours. The exhibitions here are truly fascinating and definitely deserve longer time to explore. Here you will find a bit of everything: fine art paintings, photography, a bit of tapestry, embroidery, sculptures, some a bit more experimental art, as well as some 19th century interiors. All the staff we met was really polite (especially the lovely and talkative wardrobe lady), despite the fact that we were the very last visitors that day (they work till 17:00, we entered after 16:00). Very, very positive experience, thanks a lot.

*But if you visit the place on the last Sunday of the month, it is...