The largest permanent exhibit at the National Museum in Warsaw is the Polish Art Gallery, which taking up the main rooms on the first floor of the two northern wings of the building and comprising  430 paintings created either by Polish painters or by foreign artists working in Poland. 

The chronological arrangement of the works illustrates the continuity in development of Polish painting from the 16th century up to pre World War I.. It shows its most important trends and stylistic tendencies of said paintings, with particular consideration of the achievements of artists connected with artistic circles of Warsaw.

The content-related concept and layout of the Gallery, with clear predominance of works executed in the 19th century, reflects the historical character of the evolution of Polish painting. It also shows the profile of the Museum collection, which has changed dramatically after the return (1983-1984) to the recently rebuilt Royal Castle in Warsaw of many outstanding Age of Enlightenment. art works.

The next rooms of the Gallery are dedicated to the presentation of paintings typical for particular epoques  and artistic trends: Renaissance, Baroque, Enlightenment, Classicism, Romanticism, Historicism, Academism, Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, and the period of Young Poland. The representative group of paintings – featuring some outstanding works of many famous painters, comprising a veritable text-book canon of the history of Polish art - is complemented with 25 selected sculptures by 19th century artists as well as some examples of decorative arts from the 16th to the first half of the 19th century.

A separate cabinet has been dedicated to presentation of miniatures, mainly portraits (about 350 objects) painted by Polish as well as by  foreign artists.