The collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings is one of the most important in Northern Germany and is unique in the North East. Paintings by artists such as Jan Breughel, Rachel Ruysch or Willem Kalf are complemented by a collection of drawings, among others by Rembrandt and van Dyck.

Unlike the collection of the State Museum in Schwerin, which has its roots in purchases by the Grand Dukes, the Rostock collection came about because townspeople collected works of art. Nonetheless the unusually large number of works provides an overview of the development of painting in the Netherlands since the Golden Age.

Based on gifts by leading Rostock families in the late 19th century, a collection grew that offers an overview of what townspeople collected in the 18th and 19th century.

Most of the works are by Dutch painters, fewer by Flemish masters. Landscapes, genre scenes, still lifes and seascapes were more to the taste of the people of Rostock and their sense of reality than courtly baroque art.