The history of the museum begins in 1921, when an art department named after V.I. Surikov was created based on a collection of artworks that had been stored since the late 19th century in the City Museum (now the Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum).

Many exhibits came from private collections. Among the museum's donors were representatives of well-known Krasnoyarsk families: Matveevs, Surikovs, Yudins, and Gadalovs. A significant part of the art collection of the regional museum consisted of works gathered by Krasnoyarsk gold miner and art lover P.I. Kuznetsov, who provided financial support to V.I. Surikov during his studies at the Academy of Arts.

In 1958, the Krasnoyarsk Art Gallery was opened in a separate building based on the Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum. It was located on the first floor of a residential building at 68 Krasnoyarsky Rabochy Avenue. Since 1983, the gallery has held the status of a museum.

Today, the museum occupies three locations in different parts of the city. The exhibition of Russian art from the 18th and early 20th centuries is housed in the former mansion of V.N. Gadalova. This building, constructed in 1909 on a site owned by prominent Krasnoyarsk merchant and patron of the arts Pyotr Ivanovich Gadalov, was designed by architect V.A. Sokolovsky with the participation of sculptor A. Popov. The mansion was intended for the wife of P.I. Gadalov and was used for formal receptions.

The museum building is an architectural monument of Krasnoyarsk and is designed in the Art Nouveau style. In this mansion, V.N. Gadalova hosted many guests, including the world-famous Norwegian traveler Fridtjof Nansen, who visited this place from September 12 to 16, 1913, as evidenced by a commemorative plaque on the building.