The Gallery of New Masters in the Albertinum holds the strongest collection of nineteenth and early twentieth-century paintings in the eastern German states. The focus is on German Romantic and Realist painting — Caspar David Friedrich above all, but also Ludwig Richter, Carl Gustav Carus, and Johann Christian Clausen Dahl — alongside Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Gauguin.
The Albertinum itself is a converted arsenal rebuilt as a gallery in the 1880s, then heavily renovated after the 2002 Elbe flood. The building now sits on a raised plinth, the basement given over to a flood-proof depot for the collection. The ground floor is occupied by the Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection), with Greek, Roman, and medieval works. The paintings are on the upper floors, with good natural light and relatively uncrowded rooms. Dresden's reputation rests overwhelmingly on its Baroque heritage, but the Neue Meister is a genuine counterweight — particularly the Friedrich rooms, which are among the best displays of Romantic landscape painting in Europe.