In the beginning of the history of the Wuppertal museum there is the founding of two arts societies (Kunstvereine) in Barmen and Elberfeld, at the time two separate towns. The Barmer Kunstverein, founded in 1866, organized exhibitions of contemporary art and was deeply involved in the construction of the Barmer Kunsthalle (Barmen Art Gallery 1897–1900). The Museumsverein Elberfeld was established in 1892 with the aim of building a public art collection. From 1902 on it was able to use the former Elberfeld Town Hall as a museum.
The first painting entered in the inventory register of the Elberfeld art collection is Dog on the Edge of the Forest by the French landscape painter, Olivier de Penne. August von der Heydt, the initiator and founding member of the Elberfeld Museumsverein, donated it in 1897.
