The Art Gallery is situated in a restored the former building of Tsar Alexander the II Technical High School. More than 400 works of painting, drawing and sculpture of the 14th - 20th centuries are placed on its two floors.

    The collection of the history-and-ethnography collection M. K. Tenisheva's museum "The Russian Antique" (1898), the private collections of Baryshnikovs, Panins, Obolenskiys, Hludovs, Haleckaya as well as collections from the Department of IZO of the People's Committee of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic are the basis of the museum collection of art. Among the artists who took part in the creation of the museum's collection while their being in Smolensk there are such names as F. Pastuhov, P. Lalenkov, M. Hozerov, Ch. Stefanskiy, N. Yablonskiy, B. Lebedev, A. Buleachov.

    The exposition of the Russian art is presented by the wide row of art-works from the ancient Russian icons to the masters of the beginning of the 20th century. Among them there are the portraits V. Tropinin, V. Rokotov, I. Repin; the landscapes of I. Levitan, I. Aivazovskiy; the sculptures of P. Antokolskiy; the masterpieces of A. Benois, A. Kuinju, K. Somov, R. Falk andN. Roerich.

    The exposition of the Soviet art contains the considerable art-works of the 1920th - 1980th years including the art-works of the Smolensk artists.

    The collection of the Western Europe paintings of the 15th -16thcenturies is rich and diverse. It distinguishes itself not only for the great number of works but for the wide range of the schools of painting (Italian, Dutch, Flemish, French, German) as well as the highest level of art. One can see the pictures of Arellano, Kessel and Zurbaran in the Art Galle

    It's one the most beautiful buildings in the center of Smolensk- the former building of Tsar Alexander the II Technical High School (1877). It has the imposingness of a palace. The authors of the project are the province architect O.F. Harten and M. F. Meisher. Originally the central volume of the building was three-storied and the flank wings were two-storied. The facades of the building are implemented in the forms of eclectics with the Russian Revival style and the Gothic style, so typical for the architecture of the 19th century. The plan of the building forms a rectangular opened from one side. The contemporaries of the 19th centuryliked its silhouette and the contrast pink-and-white coloring of its facades.

    By the present moment the building has been restored, the three-sectioned staircase has been reconstructed and the open-work steps have been preserved. The buildingis adjoined with gates having an arched passageand a wicket-gate stylized like the Roman Architecture. Above the arch in an icon-case crowned with a crown there's a coat of arms with a cannon