The Collection of Paintings began to take shape and develop even before the founding of the Museum. The Collection contains art paintings and graphics, mostly by highly educated artists, but also by self-taught and unknown painters, with various themes from peasant life and peasants in traditional costumes, which mainly originate from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  A significant place in the Collection is occupied by objects of sacred themes – glass paintings, icons and votive paintings, dating mainly from the second half of the 18th century and the 19th century.   The Collection has been continuously replenished by acquisitions and donations, and today it has 841 objects (2020). Due to its exceptional cultural and historical value, the Collection was entered into the Register of Cultural Property of the Republic of Croatia (2014). All the listed objects present in the Collection of Paintings are important as valuable documents, especially from an ethnographic point of view, and much less as artistic artifacts. Paintings with ethnographic and sacred themes were a supplement to the Museum's permanent and occasional exhibitions in accordance with a particular concept. Folklore themes were the backbone of this Collection at the time of its creation, and have remained so to this day. The catalogue "Painting Collection" was published in 2017 by the Ethnographic Museum.