The thematic section dealing with the Court and Citizenry is dedicated to the act of collecting itself and thus to the origins of the museum's own collection. The desire of the court to present itself in a manner fitting to its station is demonstrated here along with the modern tendency of well-off individuals in the upper middle classes to put their own person in the spotlight. Dutch painting of the Golden Age, in particular, was the focal point of the bourgeoisie's penchant for putting itself on display by collecting artworks.

The heart of this area is the Rubens Hall, in which the representative picture gallery of Prince Elector Jan Wellem comes to life in an impression recalling the murals of Nicolas de Pigage.
In this two-story exhibit hall, oil sketches never before exhibited publicly from the ceiling decorations of the prince elector's hunting castle in Bensberg are presented as well as select works of art from this noble's private cabinets. There is also a reminder that the custom of hanging paintings according to the genres of landscape, still life and portrait was still a new, pathbreaking fashion in those days.