Exhibit 00 Antonín Dvořák, 1892 Reproduced from the publication Souvenir and Programme of the Actors’ Fund Fair, New York 1892 · Internet Archive Book Images

Antonín Dvořák, portrait photograph from 1892 — Exhibit 00 Antonín Dvořák, 1892 Reproduced from the publication Souvenir and Programme of the Actors’ Fund Fair, New York 1892 · Internet Archive Book Images

The man whose music lives on.

An intimate exhibition devoted to Antonín Dvořák in the heart of Prague.

Enter the story

The living archive

Light up a memory

Photographs, letters and manuscripts lie on the archivist’s desk. Choose an exhibit and guide the light across it — out of the half-light emerge faces, handwriting and details that would easily be missed on a wall.

A photograph from the summer of 1870. Dvořák was twenty-eight, played the viola in the orchestra of the Provisional Theatre, and his compositions were still known only to a small circle of Prague listeners.
In the restaurant you will see this likeness in colour — colourised with modern technology. Here you uncover it with light. It is not a colour photograph of the period.
The parish register entry of his birth. Antonín Dvořák was born on 8 September 1841 in Nelahozeves, in house No. 12, the first of the nine children of František and Anna Dvořák.
A sheet from the 1857 census for house No. 69 in Zlonice, where the Dvořák family was then living and keeping an inn. The sixteen-year-old Antonín is entered on it too.
In Zlonice he was taken under the wing of the teacher and organist Antonín Liehmann, who led him to the organ, the piano and the violin, and to music theory.
Josefína Čermáková, a stage actress. The young Dvořák earned extra money by giving piano lessons and fell in love with his pupil Josefína — but she did not return his feelings.
On 17 November 1873 he married her younger sister, Anna. Josefína married Count Václav Robert Kounic; the Dvořáks often stayed on their estate at Vysoká near Příbram.
Antonín and Anna Dvořák in London in 1886. From 1884 onwards Dvořák travelled to England again and again, conducting his own works there.
For the Philharmonic Society of London he wrote his Symphony No. 7, and in April 1885 he conducted its première at St James’s Hall.
Dvořák in the doctoral gown of the University of Cambridge, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1891. The university in Prague also made him an honorary doctor.
The first page of the autograph score of Symphony No. 9 in E minor, ‘From the New World’. Dvořák wrote it in New York between January and May 1893.
Its première took place on 16 December 1893 at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Anton Seidl, and it was one of the greatest triumphs of his life.
A postcard that Dvořák sent from Chicago on 11 August 1893 to his friend Emil Kozánek, a lawyer in Kroměříž — his name stands in the address.
In the same year he conducted his Symphony No. 8 at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
A page of a letter that Dvořák wrote in Prague on 19 April 1886. In it he writes: „Papa Beethoven, jehož obraz nad mým psacím stolkem visí…“
In English: ‘Papa Beethoven, whose picture hangs above my writing desk…’
A cabinet photograph from J. Mulač’s studio in Prague, to which Dvořák added a musical quotation and his signature in his own hand on 24 April 1903 — about a year before his death on 1 May 1904.

The reproductions come from publicly accessible collections (Wikimedia Commons, the State Regional Archives in Prague and the State District Archives in Kladno). The colour layer on exhibit 01 is a modern colourisation displayed in the restaurant.

Hall I · Childhood and family

Roots

Antonín Dvořák’s early years — the atmosphere of the home he was born into, his parents František and Anna, and the places that shaped his character.

Antonín Dvořák’s birthplace in Nelahozeves in an old photograph — His birthplace in Nelahozeves, No. 12

1841

Nelahozeves

Antonín Dvořák was born on 8 September 1841 in Nelahozeves on the Vltava, the first of nine children. His father, František, was a butcher and innkeeper who played the zither; his mother, Anna, née Zdeňková, came from Uhy.

František Dvořák, the composer’s father, in a photograph from 1892 — František Dvořák (1814–1894), his father

Anna Dvořáková, née Zdeňková, the composer’s mother — Anna Dvořáková (1820–1882), his mother

1847

The first violin

In 1847 he started school and learnt the violin under the guidance of the teacher Josef Spitz.

During his childhood Nelahozeves gained a railway station — and a love of trains stayed with him all his life.

Antonín Liehmann, teacher and organist in Zlonice — Antonín Liehmann, his teacher in Zlonice

Census sheet from Zlonice, 1857 — Census of 1857 · SOkA Kladno

1853–1859

Zlonice and Prague

In 1853 he moved to Zlonice. There the teacher and organist Antonín Liehmann taught him music theory and the violin, piano and organ.

In 1857 he went to Prague to study at the Organ School, from which he graduated in 1859.

Hall II · Creative path and acclaim

Music that crossed borders

Portraits, documents, scores, and honours at home and abroad — the story of a talent that was celebrated in his own lifetime and became immortal.

First page of the autograph score of Symphony No. 9, From the New World, 1893 — **Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’** autograph score, New York 1893

Title page of the autograph score of Symphony No. 7, 1885 — **Symphony No. 7** for the Philharmonic Society of London, 1885

Title page of the autograph score of the oratorio St Ludmila, 1886 — **St Ludmila** an oratorio performed in England, 1886

Title page of the autograph score of Symphony No. 8, 1890 — **Symphony No. 8** autograph score, 1890

Title page of the first edition of Symphony No. 9 arranged for piano, Simrock 1894 — **From the New World** published by N. Simrock, 1894

Poster for the first performance of the opera Rusalka at the National Theatre, 1901 — **Rusalka** première poster, National Theatre 1901

1862–1871
Viola player in the orchestra of the Provisional Theatre, conducted from 1866 by Bedřich Smetana.
1875
An Austrian state stipend for young composers.
1878
On the recommendation of Johannes Brahms, the Berlin publisher Fritz Simrock brings out his Slavonic Dances.
1884
Conducts his Stabat Mater at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
1885
Première of Symphony No. 7 at St James’s Hall in London.
1891
An honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge; the university in Prague also made him an honorary doctor.
1892–1895
Director of the National Conservatory in New York.
1893
On 16 December Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ is heard for the first time at Carnegie Hall.
1898
The Literis et artibus decoration.
1901
Première of Rusalka at the National Theatre; director of the Prague Conservatory and a life member of the House of Lords (Panská sněmovna).

The light above the manuscripts will breathe with the music.

Intermezzo

The cabinet of memories

Four things lie on the writing desk. Pick one up and let it tell its story.

Choose an object on the desk.

The objects on the desk are an artistic metaphor; they do not mean that their originals are part of the exhibition. The reproductions of documents come from public collections.

Hall III · Family and private life

Home

His wife Anna and nine children. The family photographs evoke the atmosphere of a home that is the key to understanding the humanity and depth of his music.

The sisters Josefína and Anna Čermáková at the piano — The sisters Josefína and Anna Čermáková

Antonín and Anna Dvořák in London, 1886 — With Anna in London, 1886

Dvořák with his family and friends in New York, 1893 — With family and friends in New York, 1893

Anna Dvořáková, née Čermáková, the composer’s wife — Anna Dvořáková (1854–1931)

On 17 November 1873 Antonín Dvořák married Anna Čermáková (1854–1931). They had nine children; the three eldest died in early childhood.

Otakar1874–1877
Josefa1875
Růžena1876–1877
Otilie1878–1905
Anna1880–1923
Magdalena1881–1952
Antonín1883–1956
Otakar1885–1961
Aloisie1888–1967

Among his great passions were railways and breeding pigeons. The family spent the summer months at Vysoká near Příbram, where Dvořák converted an old granary into a summer residence — there he tended his orchard, kept pigeons and composed.

Josefína, his first love and later his sister-in-law, wrote to him in November 1894 that she was seriously ill. Into the finale of his Cello Concerto in B minor he then wove a quotation from his song „Kéž duch můj sám“ (‘Leave Me Alone’), which she loved. After her death in May 1895 he revised the ending of the concerto once more.

Hall IV · Dvořák and the world

From Prague to Spillville

The places where Dvořák performed and taught — from London to New York, from Prague to Spillville. Choose a place on the map.

Choose a place on the map or in the list.

The gold lines connect places; they do not show the exact routes travelled. Coastlines from Natural Earth (public domain), without today’s national borders.

The exhibition at Restaurace A. Dvořák: framed photographs, a bust of Beethoven and a gilded miniature violin on an upright piano, with a wall lamp above and a gallery of colourised portraits

The exhibition in the restaurant

History is closer than you think.

Discover the world of Antonín Dvořák right here in our restaurant.

Visit the exhibition Book a table

The exhibition at Restaurace A. Dvořák · photograph by the restaurant

Your visit

How to find the exhibition

Address: Restaurace A. Dvořák
Opletalova 916/11, 110 00 Praha 1 – Nové Město
Where the exhibition is: Right inside the restaurant — an intimate space devoted to the composer’s life and legacy.
Admission: For restaurant guests, a visit to the exhibition is free of charge. The restaurant staff will gladly confirm the current visiting conditions.
Restaurant opening hours: Mon–Thu 9:30–23:00Fri–Sat 9:30–24:00Sun 9:30–23:00
Souvenir shop: The exhibition includes a small shop — music CDs, T-shirts with historical photographs, themed postcards and other gifts inspired by Dvořák’s work.
Contact: +420 216 216 711
info@restauracedvorak.cz