The building was funded and constructed by local contractor Philip Horsman (1825–1890), and built on land provided by the municipal authority.

The most outstanding artwork of international importance in the collection is the large-scale painting Peace and Plenty Binding the Arrows of War (1614) by the Flemish Baroque painter Abraham Janssens van Nuyssen (ca.

They mainly collected contemporary and early 19th-century British art and today the holdings of the gallery are still particularly strong in artworks from the Victorian period.

The purposeful collecting policy of the 1970s brought to the gallery a number of high-quality artworks by leading British artists of the 18th-century Georgian period.

The gallery has strong holdings of artworks by local artists, such as John Fullwood (1854–1931), Joseph Vickers de Ville (1856–1925), George Phoenix (1863–1935), Alfred Egerton Cooper (1883–1974).

Paintings by the 18th-century artists from the gallery's collection include Portrait of the Lee Family by Joseph Highmore, The Provoked Wife by Johann Zoffany, Portrait of Erasmus Darwin (1792) by Joseph Wright of Derby, Apotheosis of Penelope Boothby by Henry Fuseli, and Arrival of Louis XVIII at Calais by Wolverhampton-born Edward Bird.

Portrait miniatures, Bilston enamels depicting famous actors of the era, and some examples of the 18th-century Eastern and British ceramics are on display.

It includes landscapes by Henry Mark Anthony, David Cox, James Baker Pyne, David Roberts, narrative paintings by the Cranbrook Colony artists, religious paintings by Pre-Raphaelite artist Frederic Shields, japanned ware by local manufacturers which were shown at The Great Exhibition, examples of local Myatt pottery, and Eastern objects - Chinese ceramics and mirror paintings, Japanese woodblock prints, Indian pottery and weapons, Persian metalware - collected by local people.

The display has contained works by influential pop artists Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Clive Barker, Eduardo Paolozzi and Derek Boshier.

The permanent display of the Northern Ireland Collection considers the role of visual artists in depicting and presenting the country's contested past and future.

Artists represented in the Northern Ireland collection include Willie Doherty, Jock McFadyen, Rita Duffy, John Keane, Siobhan Hapaska and Robert Priseman.

Highlights from Wolverhampton Art Gallery collection are shown alongside borrowed exhibits that offer different perspectives on the history of the conflict and its resolution.