The collection includes a series of famous works of Polish painters, in particular from the 19th and the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, including several paintings considered the masterpieces of Polish painting, e.g., Portrait of the Artist’s Mother by Henryk Rodakowski, Napoleon on a Horse by Piotr Michałowski, Sleeping Mietek by Stanisław Wyspiański, and also one of the earliest history paintings by Jan Matejko Sobieski in Częstochowa.
The collection provides a representative overview of the Polish painting starting from the Sarmatism (Sarmatian portrait 17th – 18th centuries by, e.g. Józef Faworski) and Stanislaus Augustus era (artworks by Marcello Bacciarelli, Jan Piotr Norblin) through the mainstream of 19th-century arts (e.g., paintings by Wojciech Gerson, Witold Pruszkowski, Józef Chełmoński, Aleksander Gierymski, Leon Wyczółkowski) until the period of Młoda Polska (Young Poland) (paintings by, e.g., Olga Boznańska, Stanisław Wyspiański, Józef Mehoffer, Jacek Malczewski, and a sculpture by Ksawery Dunikowski).
Valuable part of the collection includes the paintings by the so called Polish artists in Munich, inter alia, Maksymilian Gierymski, Józef Brandt, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, and Jan Rosen.
The collection also presents the artworks of the artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries connected with the emergence of artistic community in industrial Łódź, also Jewish artists (e.g. paintings by Leon and Samuel Hirszenberg, Maurycy Trębacz, Leopold Pilichowski, sculptures by Henryk Glicenstein); the group includes a precious acquisition of a painting by Witold Wołczaski, nowadays a little known painter, who ran one of the first artistic schools in Łódź.
Beginnings of the collection date back to the period 1930–39. It all started with a family collection of Kazimierz Bartoszewicz, Krakow historian and publicist donated to the city over the years 1928–30. The donation included, inter alia, artworks by Jan Piotr Norblin, Artur Grottger, Aleksander Kotsis, Witold Pruszkowski, Józef Chełmoński, Jacek Malczewski, and Vlastimil Hofman. The core of the initial collection was supplemented with a a few works from the former City Museum and City Art Gallery, from the collection of Łódź Municipality; the works of, e.g., Michał Elwiro Andriolli, Kazimierz Sichulski, Aleksander Lesser, Juliusz Kossak, Maurycy Trębacz, and Natan Spiegel, added on to the collection were purchased by the Municipality.
Another valuable contribution to the pre-war collection of Polish painting was the gift of the Łódź industrial tycoon, Karol Eisert, who donated the following paintings: Alchemist Sędziwój and King Sigismundus III by Jan Matejko, Intermezzo by Jacek Malczewski, and a Wounded Cuirassier and a Girl by Wojciech Kossak. The list of donors includes also other names of Łódź industrialists, such as, e.g., Stanisław Silberstein, Jakub Brat-Kon or the heirs to Henryk Grohman.
Collection of the newly established museum was also expanding as a result of subsequent acquisitions. Among the most precious purchases of the pre-war period we can mention two portraits by Olga Boznańska, the famous Portrait of the Artist’s Mother by Henryk Rodakowski, and the Self-Portrait by Piotr Michałowski.
After the war the collection was constantly expanded with donations and purchases but also as a result of many transfers. Currently, it is composed of more than 700 artworks, out of which almost 450 are oil paintings. Major sets of works are graphics by Jan Piotr Norblin (84 works) and the paintings by Marian Wawrzeniecki (28 oil works and gouaches). Latest acquisitions include Adolf Herstein painting, considered lost, Landscape with Peasants/Prayer, 1900 – purchased in 2007.
