Lviv's public and private collections contain a very large number of works by Polish artists or works associated with Polish heritage. Of particular importance is the collection of Polish art at the Lviv National Art Gallery, comprising some 3,000 thousand paintings and more than 1,000 sculptures, making it perhaps the largest similar collection outside Poland. From the moment the city's first public gallery was established (in fact, even before its official opening), building a comprehensive collection of paintings by Polish artists, ancient and modern, was among the institution's priorities.

The first voices about the need for a public and permanent art exhibition in Lviv appeared as early as the 19th century. In 1861, the local painter Korneli Szlegel, in an article published in the Dziennik Literacki [Literary Journal], postulated the organisation of a city gallery of paintings, following the example of Krakow, but also of other European cities. This intention, however, did not come to fruition for a long time, and a certain alternative in the city's cultural life came in the 1970s when the Lubomirski Museum was opened to the public (after a long struggle with the Austrian authorities). However, the project of a new institution of an exhibition nature, financed by the municipal authorities, was still under consideration. In 1902, a member of the Lviv City Council, Wladyslaw Dulęba, donated 5,000 crowns to the city to purchase works of art for the future gallery. The first purchase made was the painting Vows of Jan Kazimierz by Jan Matejko. In the same year, for the first time a part of the municipal budget was allocated for the purchase of works of art, although the institution itself did not yet exist.

The breakthrough moment and the real beginning of the building of the city's art collection was the purchase in 1907 of a huge collection of nearly 2,000 objects of art and artistic craftsmanship from Jan Jakowicz of Sitkowice in Podolia. This ensemble was to consist primarily of works of European art, including works by outstanding masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Raphael. 14 February 1907, the day of the opening of a painting exhibition presenting the most interesting pieces from the purchased collection, is considered the beginning of the operation of the City Gallery of Lviv (later renamed the National Gallery). Its first curator was the painter Marceli Harasimowicz, who held this position for another quarter of a century.

Very soon, however, critical voices arose in the city questioning the stated attributes and artistic level of the purchased works. In order to verify this, an expert appraiser from Vienna, Theodor von Frimmel, was brought to Lviv, who (allegedly for a hefty bribe) only partially confirmed the accusations appearing in the increasingly loud rumours. Paradoxically, however, this specialist verification proved in some cases to be beneficial from the point of view of building up a collection of polonics: for example, the Fête galante originally attributed to Antoine Watteau turned out to be by Jean-Pierre Norblin. The scandal at the dawn of the new institution's history did not derail its further activities and development, but it may have influenced a change in strategy - aspirations to build a collection of great, global dimensions were abandoned and attention was focused on works by more local artists.

The development of this part of the collection was possible primarily thanks to donors. Immediately after the first opening, the Lvov collector Michał Szymon Toepfer donated a collection of nearly 200 oil paintings, watercolours and pastels, mainly by contemporary Polish masters (including Stanisław Wyspiański, Leon Wyczółkowski, Ferdynand Ruszczyc and Wojciech Weiss). A little later, Helena Dąbczańska also donated a large part of her extensive private collection, among which paintings by 19th-century artists connected with Lviv stood out. In subsequent years, many donors gave works to the public collection; artists themselves also donated their works, such as Aleksander Augustynowicz, Maria Dulębianka and Feliks Wygrzywalski.

The collection of Polish paintings at the City Gallery was also gradually expanded through purchases. During the first years of the institution's operation, works by contemporary artists active in Lviv were regularly purchased, but a collection of works by local artists of the late 18th and first half of the 19th century was also initiated, including works by such important Lvov artists as Joseph Pitschmann, Karol Schweikart, Alojzy Rejchan and Marcin Jabłoński. One of the priorities was the acquisition of works by Artur Grottger for the city's collection, which were acquired from private owners and at art auctions, building up a rich and representative assemblage of works by this Lvov-bound, prematurely deceased master. Between 1908 and 1912, as many as 16 paintings by the painter were acquired from the family of Jan Matejko and the heirs of his secretary, Marian Gorzkowski, including the famous Portrait of the Artist's Children or the only landscape in his oeuvre, the View of Bebek near Constantinople. Even before the outbreak of the First World War, the gallery also collected 28 works (paintings and drawings) by Jacek Malczewski. By the decision of the Archive and Museum Commission of the Municipality of Lviv, the Panorama of Raclawice, a monumental work created by a team of painters under the direction of Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak for the General National Exhibition in Lvov in 1894 and since then exhibited in the rotunda on the premises of the Eastern Fair, was handed over to the care of the Gallery in 1917. In the interwar period the number and significance of new acquisitions declined somewhat, but the collection of the National Gallery of the City of Lwow, including the collection of Polish art, was supplemented by gifts and deposits, the largest of which was a gift of 109 works by the painter Ludwik Kwiatkowski from 1928.

With the outbreak of World War II and the incorporation of Lviv into the USSR, great changes took place in the cultural life of the city, primarily related to the reorganisation of museum institutions ordered by the new authorities. As a result, the collections of the city gallery, which was renamed the Lviv State Picture Gallery, included objects from the disbanded Lubomirski Museum and many previously nationalised private collections (including those of the Dzieduszycki, Baworowski, Piniński, Gołuchowski and others). From 1940, a new permanent gallery exhibition was launched, divided into two sections: Ukrainian and Western European art. During the German occupation about 1000 objects of the greatest historical value, including a lot of paintings by Polish painters, were secured in the warehouses of the Historical Museum, 5 crates of paintings, including three large canvases by Jan Matejko (Union of Lublin, Rejtan and Batory at Pskov) were taken to Nowy Wiśnicz, the rest were deposited in the cellars of the Dominican monastery. The Racławicka Panorama, heavily damaged during the bombardment of the city, was hidden in a box in the Bernardine Monastery. Unfortunately, these measures did not fully protect the art collection from looting - of the more than 200 works looted during the war, including monuments of Polish art, most were not recovered.

After the war, the gallery resumed its activities. In 1946, under international agreements, a large collection of works by Polish artists, including those from the former collection of the Lubomirski Museum, was transferred to the then Silesian Museum in Wrocław (now the National Museum). This included over 200 works: mainly oil paintings, but also watercolours, drawings and sculptures. Still, the group of Polish paintings constituted a significant part of the institution's collection, and in the post-war period it was still expanded, especially by works by artists active in Lviv. Exhibits from the collection of the Lviv Historical Museum, including a valuable collection of old paintings from the castle in Podhorce, were transferred to the Polish section of the gallery.

Today, the Lviv National Art Gallery is one of the largest museums in Ukraine, with a collection of more than 64,000 works of world and national art, from ancient times to the present. The collection includes outstanding works of Polish painting from the 17th to the 20th century, and especially works from the 19th century and the period of Young Poland, of all genres, styles and schools of art, including above all examples of works by artists associated with the Lviv environment. Among the Polish works belonging to the Gallery's collection there are also many works by Western European artists, connected with Polish culture or history through the subject of representation, portrayed figures or the persons of their commissioners. This group includes, for example, the marble tombstone of the children of Countess Helena Poninska made by Bertel Thorvaldsen, originally intended for the family chapel in Czerwonogród, the image of Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid painted by Angelika Kauffmann or the portrait of the famous scandalist Catherine Starzeńska painted by François Gérard.