The art gallery, known in Moscow under the name Rumyantsevskaya, was part of the Moscow Public Museum, closely associated with the Rumyantsev Museum both in its history and in their common task - to serve "for good education," as it was said in the inscription on the building containing the collections of both of these institutions. This gallery was founded in 1858, when Emperor Alexander II donated to the Museum the painting by A. A. Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the People."