Excerpt from The Vienna Galleries: Giving a Brief History of the Public and Private Galleries of Vienna, With a Critical Description of the Paintings Therein Contained

If this book should induce art lovers to visit Vienna and view its museums, my devout desire would be fulfilled, but also - which is of far greater importance - a distinct service would have been rendered to these art lovers.

For the Vienna Galleries of paintings are, with the exception of the Hermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg, the least known of those in Europe, but it may be said without exaggeration that they are among the most important. They are especially rich in the works of masters not generally known to art lovers, but of equal rank and often higher merit than those whose names are more familiar.

The wealth of these Galleries may be estimated when we consider that the Imperial Museum shows over twenty-six hundred paintings, the Academy Collection, twelve hundred, the Liechtenstein, over eight hundred, the Czernin, three hundred and fifty, the Harrach, almost four hundred, the Schonbrunn, one hundred and fifty, and the Lower Belvedere Gallery, one hundred, or about five thousand five hundred paintings in all.

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