The Old Masters Picture Gallery inside Schloss Wilhelmshöhe palace is one of the most important collections of its kind and is internationally renowned. Its history, which spans more than 500 years, goes back to the times of the landgraves and their collections.

The exhibition on its three floors provides an excellent overview of European painting from the late Gothic period to Classicism, with a particular focus on 17th century Dutch and Flemish art, including numerous masterpieces by Rubens, Frans Hals, Van Dyck and Jordaens. Its collection of works by Rembrandt, among these the famous paintings "Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph" and his portrait of Saskia van Uylenburgh, is one of the most extensive anywhere in the world. The German, Italian, French and Spanish Old Masters are represented with works by Dürer, Titian, Poussin and Murillo, for example.

The picture gallery's origins date back to 1509, when Lucas Cranach the Elder created a small winged altar in memory of William II, Landgrave of Hesse. Most of the collection was acquired between 1748 and 1756, when William VIII, Landgrave of Hesse, commissioned his diplomats as well as professional art buyers to purchase approximately 800 paintings in the Netherlands, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Venice and Germany. Between 1749 and 1751, a dedicated building for the collection was constructed behind the landgrave's palace between Auehang and Frankfurter Strasse. In 1877, the paintings were moved to a newly erected building at Schöne Aussicht, now known as the Neue Galerie, where they remained until the Second World War began. The Old Masters Picture Gallery moved to Schloss Wilhelmshöhe palace in 1974.