The works of painting and sculpting art of the authors connected with Slovakia provide a picture of our art of the 19th century which in its development corresponded with Central European fine art expression. It underwent period style transformations, starting with Classicism through Biedermeier and Romanticism up to Realism, landscape style and Luminism. In addition to Bratislava which was oriented to Vienna, the Spiš region and the towns of Prešov and Košice were the main centres on our territory.
The activity of the artists working on our territory was closely connected to
art academies (Vienna, Prague, Munich, Paris, Budapest) which trained “academic” artists. In addition to education, these centres also provided the possibilities to exhibit works at academic salons and created the conditions for commissions. Along with the domestic masters, which included such artists as Ján Jakub Müller, Ján Rombauer, Jozef Czauczik, Jozef Božetech Klemens, Peter Michal Bohúň, Vojtech Klimkovics, Jozef Hanula, Július Csordák, or Gustáv Mallý, Želmíra Duchajová-Švehlová and Martin Benka, those whose work affected the wider Central European space are also represented in the collection. They include such artists as Karol Marko senior, Leopold Horowitz, Július Benczúr, Ladislav Mednyánszky, Dominik Skutecký and others. In the course of the 19th century, foreign artists also worked on our territory and some of them settled here for a longer period of time. Ján Jakub Stunder, Ferdinand von Lütgendorff, Giacomo Marastoni and many others belong to this group. Although portraits prevailed on our territory in the 19th century, there was also interest in landscapes, still lifes and genre motifs with a specific emphasis on the Slovak environment at the end of the century. The exposition of works from this period is complemented by sculptures by Ladislav Dunajský, Viktor Tilgner, Alojz Stróbl, Ján Fadrusz, Alojz Rigele, Ján Koniarek and others.
