
Josef Höger (1801–1877), View from the Hall on the First Floor of the Grenzschloss, Looking across the Terrace to Bischofswarth Pond, 1839
Rudolf von Alt, Joseph Höger, Franz Richter.
Krásy českých zemí v akvarelech z Lichtenštejnských knížecích sbírek (The beauty of the Bohemian lands in watercolours from the Collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein)
Shortly before the dawn of photography, the watercolour reached the height of its popularity. Like other aristocratic families, the Princes of Liechtenstein had their most important estates in Austria, Bohemia and Moravia recorded in watercolours and gouaches by the foremost vedutists of the time, including Jacob Alt, Rudolf von Alt, Thomas Ender, Ferdinand Runk, Joseph Höger and Franz Richter.
Shown as part of the Smetana Festival in Litomyšl, the exhibition features fifty watercolours recording towns, stately residences and gardens in Bohemia and Moravia. All the works derive from the Collections of the Prince von und zu Liechtenstein. Many of them have been part of the Princely Collections since they were commissioned, while others have been acquired only recently, with a number being put on public view here for the first time.
The exhibition can be enjoyed as a fascinating journey into the past, giving us a vivid impression of how many well-known places in the Bohemian lands looked in the nineteenth century.