Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery (Ukrainian: Львівська Національна Галерея Мистецтв імені Бориса Возницького) is the largest art museum in Ukraine, with over 62,000 artworks in its collection, including works of Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, French, German, Dutch and Flemish, Spanish, Austrian and other European artists.

The chronological and stylistic principle of the art on display in the first exhibition galleries is intended to highlight the complexity and diversity of the artistic and intellectual life, in particular in Lviv, starting from the early 19th century.

The carnage the image depicts, superficially a representation of the expulsion of an invading force, more deeply reflects the local tragedy that the Poles took part in the war on the side of Napoleon, mistakenly believing that he would become the liberator of Poland and the country would restore its statehood.

Also in these galleries are the works of François Gérard, Jacek Malczewski, Mykhailo Boichuk, Peter Kholodny, Yaroslava Muzyka and others.

Matejko's intense interest in the historical record of his nation and his desire to promote Polish patriotism push his work beyond illustration of history to commentary upon its moral content.

His work Flood has a taste of academicism and salon art of the second half of the 19th century, with its polished figures and Alma-Tadema-esque composition.

Symbolism in Polish art is represented by the works of Jacek Malczewski: Self-Portrait with a Muse (1904), Pythia (1917), Christ before Pilate (1910) and Edward Okuń's Philistines.

Contemporary art and exhibitions space.The palace was designed by Parisian architect Louis Dauvergne and Juliusz Cybulski and completed in 1890.

There are two portraits by Gerrit van Honthorst, a follower of the great Caravaggio, the spectacular and very popular paintings Man with viola da gamba and Woman with a guitar (1631).

The Lviv Art Gallery collection also includes Saint Jerome by Lucas Gassel (1539), Portrait of a woman by Pieter Pietersz (1557), a group of paintings by Jakob de Backer, Venice, Bellona and Mary Magdalene and, two landscapes by Abraham Cowarts.

The Lviv Art Gallery also possesses two battle scenes by the Flemish Pauwels Casteels, an artist who is a rarity in museums.

Among the paintings of the history genre should be mentioned "Battle of the Fencers in Hungary" by Martino Altomonte, a German by birth, but from Italy, who worked in Zhovkva and Salzburg .

And the XIX century is represented by paintings by Ignacio Zuloaga "The Spaniard on the Street" and the work of a master from the circle of Francisco Goya (?)

In 1902, the first exhibits were organized, featuring artwork by contemporary local painters: Malczewski, Matejko, Jan Styka, Feliks Michał Wygrzywalski, and Edward Okuń.

In late 1906, the city made the decision to purchase the art collection of sugar magnate Jan Jakowicz, from nearby Sytkivtsi (Vinnitsya Oblast).

[6] The collection was moved--"smuggled"—across the Zbruch River, then the border between Russia and Austria, and installed in the halls of the Lviv Art and Industry Museum..

The newly created museum consolidated earlier donations, and, during WWI, was regarded as a safe haven from the looting occurring in the region.

When Russian troops billeted on his estate in Kalnykiv, Bolesław Orzechowicz, a notable collector, asked City Hall to intervene and save his collection.

It was transferred in 15 horse-carts to Lviv, and, after the war, in 1919, he formally bequeathed it.The Orzechowicz donation included paintings by Matejko, Juliusz Kossak, and Grottger.

Voznytsky, who had been awarded the Soviet Medal for bravery for his service to the army during WWII, did not shrink from the task of reviving the museum's mission as he saw it.

For the next four decades, he would engage art historians, enthusiasts, and the general public to aid him and the museum in the preservation of some twelve thousand museum-worthy artifacts, which otherwise would have been destroyed as a part of the Soviet campaign against religion.

Following his untimely death in a car crash in 2012, on April 12, 2013, the Lviv National Gallery of Arts added Voznytsky's name, in a gesture of deepest respect.

"Today we see how Russia is shelling residential areas (and) even people that are evacuating," says National Museum Director of Lviv, Ihor Kozhan.