Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

The Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) rises up over Museum Island like an ancient Greek temple. The imposing, Neo-classical edifice was designed and built 1866-76 by the architect F.A. Stuler, a pupil of Karl Freideric Schinkel, and it contains one of the great collections of works by both German and international artists from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the early modern period, including masterpieces by French impressionists such as Cezanne, Manet and Renoir, the surreal works of van Gogh and Munch, and sculptures by Schadow and Rodin. The gallery has been completely restored and renovated, and it was reopened in 2001. Continuing Scala's prestigious series of books on the world's greatest art collections, this is a superb overview of a popular museum, with stunning reproductions, an introduction to each section and extended captions to the colour images.