The politician Francesc Cambó i Batlle (Verges, 1876 – Buenos Aires, 1947) was one of the major figures of the first quarter of the twentieth century. As a patron of culture and the arts, he created the Fundació Bernat Metge, the Fundació Bíblica Catalana, the Fundació Hebraico-Catalana and Editorial Alpha, dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of Catalan culture and the Catalan language.

Between 1927 and 1936, advised by international experts, he set about acquiring notable artworks, and put together a collection of paintings, conscious of the omissions in the holdings of the museums of Barcelona and Madrid. In 1946, in his last will and testament, he bequeathed some fifty works to the city of Barcelona. This rich and diverse collection, of considerable quality, spans the history of European painting from the fourteenth century to the early years of the nineteenth century, and constitutes the most valuable and selfless donation this museum has received in the course its history