The Pentecost

Painted in 1711, The Pentecost was commissioned by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, and remained in his collection during his lifetime. After his death, the work entered the Electoral Gallery in Düsseldorf, which later became part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. The painting is recorded in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, as part of this state collection.

The Pentecost, an oil painting on panel by Adriaen van der Werff from 1711, is currently held in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It forms part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, specifically within the Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz collection and the Electoral Gallery Dusseldorf. The work was originally commissioned by and owned by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine.

No specific inventory or accession numbers are provided in the available records, nor is there any documented exhibition history for this piece in the sources.

The Pentecost by Adriaen van der Werff entered the collection of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, and later formed part of the Electoral Gallery in Düsseldorf, securing its place within princely European taste of the early eighteenth century.

By 1711, the work was installed in the elector’s holdings, reflecting the sustained prestige of van der Werff’s refined, classical manner among northern European courts. The painting’s later transfer to the Bavarian State Painting Collections, housed in the Alte Pinakothek, embedded it within a major public museum context, preserving its reputation as a refined example of Dutch late-classicism and religious narrative painting for successive generations.

Adriaen van der Werff’s oil painting The Pentecost was completed in 1711. Executed in the Flemish Baroque idiom, the work portrays the biblical moment when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles. It is part of the permanent collection of Munich’s Alte Pinakothek, where it remains on display among the museum’s Dutch holdings.