When Gothenburg celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1923, the city gave itself an extraordinary present. Architect Sigfrid Ericson designed a monumental Neo-Classical building to crown Gotaplatsen, the new cultural plaza at the southern end of Kungsportsavenyn, the city's main boulevard. The museum, inaugurated in 1925, was constructed from a distinctive yellow brick so common in local construction that it earned the name "Gothenburg brick." The building forms a commanding visual endpoint to the avenue, its classical columns and symmetrical facade announcing civic ambition on a grand scale. Expansions in 1968 and 1996 extended the original structure, but Ericson's vision of the museum as a terminating vista remains intact.

The museum's most celebrated space bears the name of its greatest benefactors. Pontus Furstenberg and his wife Gothilda were Gothenburg's leading art patrons in the late 19th century, assembling a collection that would become the heart of the museum's Nordic holdings. The lavishly decorated Furstenberg Gallery showcases the couple's gifts: paintings by Danish master P.S. Kroyer, whose scenes of artists gathered in the fishing village of Skagen practically glow with captured sunlight; Carl Larsson's intimate Swedish domestic scenes; Bruno Liljefors's startlingly realistic wildlife paintings; and Anders Zorn's virtuoso brushwork. These artists defined Scandinavian art during its most internationally celebrated period.

While Nordic art from the 1880s and 1890s remains the collection's calling card, the museum's 70,000 works span far wider territory. Claude Monet's Water Lilies from 1907 offers a meditation on light and reflection. Vincent van Gogh's Olive Grove from Saint-Remy captures the tortured energy of his final productive years. Works by Rembrandt and Picasso anchor the historical and modern collections. The Michelin Green Guide awards the museum three stars, its highest rating, signifying a destination worth planning an entire trip around. In 2018, the museum received Sweden's Museum of the Year Award, recognizing both its collection and its role as a cultural institution serving approximately 250,000 annual visitors.

Certain paintings in the collection tell complete stories in a single frame. Geskel Saloman's Emigration from Gothenburg, painted in 1872, documents the human tide that flowed through this port city as Swedes departed for America. Kroyer's Hip, Hip, Hurrah! from 1886 captures a joyous moment at an artists' party in Skagen, champagne glasses raised in dappled outdoor light, a defining image of Nordic Impressionism. Munch's Vampire, painted just seven years later, reveals the darker psychological currents that would soon transform European art. Together, these works trace the arc of an artistic revolution, from sunny celebration to existential unease.