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Country Road with an Inn on a Hill
Jan van Kessel (possibly), c. 1660 - c. 1680
- Artwork typedrawing
- Object numberRP-T-1879-A-47
- Dimensionsheight 151 mm x width 227 mm
- Physical characteristicspen and brownish-black ink, brownish-grey wash, over traces of graphite
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Identification
Title(s)
Country Road with an Inn on a Hill
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1879-A-47
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
draughtsman: Jan van Kessel (possibly)
Dating
c. 1660 - c. 1680
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Material and technique
Physical description
pen and brownish-black ink, brownish-grey wash, over traces of graphite
Dimensions
height 151 mm x width 227 mm
This work is about
Subject
Acquisition and rights
Acquisition
purchase 1879
Copyright
Provenance
…; Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburch (1784-1865), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen; inherited by Franciscus Johannes Hallo (1808-79), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen;{Gelders Archief, 0407 Huis De Cannenburg, inv. no. 398.} sold through the mediation of the dealers A.E. Cohen and M. Wolff (L. 2610); sale, Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburch, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos and C.F. Roos Jr.), 18 December 1879, no. 108 (‘J. van Kessel. Paysage au bord d’une rivière. A l’encre de Chine.’), fl. 15, to the museum (L. 2228), 1879
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Jan van Kessel (possibly)
Country Road with an Inn on a Hill
c. 1660 - c. 1680
Inscriptions
inscribed on verso: upper left, in pencil, B 21; lower left, with the mark of Wolff and Cohen (L. 2610); lower left, in pencil, Jan van Kessel.; below that, in pencil, 1050.; below that, in brown ink, f. 1050.; next that, in pencil, A. 47
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: none
Provenance
…; Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburch (1784-1865), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen; inherited by Franciscus Johannes Hallo (1808-79), Kasteel De Cannenburch, Vaassen;1Gelders Archief, 0407 Huis De Cannenburg, inv. no. 398. sold through the mediation of the dealers A.E. Cohen and M. Wolff (L. 2610); sale, Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburch, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos and C.F. Roos Jr.), 18 December 1879, no. 108 (‘J. van Kessel. Paysage au bord d’une rivière. A l’encre de Chine.’), fl. 15, to the museum (L. 2228), 1879
Object number: RP-T-1879-A-47
The artist
Biography
Jan van Kessel (Amsterdam, 1641 - Amsterdam, 1680)
He was born to the framemaker Thomas Jacobsz. van Kessel (?-?) and Neeltje Henrix (?-?) and baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 22 September 1641.2Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB Dopen, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 42, blad p. 273, aktenummer DTB 42. In 1668, he married Clara Swichters (?-?).3Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, Ondertrouwregister, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 491, blad p. 342, aktenummer DTB 491. The couple had several children, but only one son, Isaac (1670-?), made it to adulthood.4A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, pp. 14-17.
Based on stylistic evidence, Van Kessel probably trained with Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682). He was friends with fellow artist Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), the only documented student of Ruisdael.5Hobbema acted as the godfather to Van Kessel’s son Thomas (1675-? 1676), and in 1690, ten years after Van Kessel’s death, he became the legal guardian of Isaac van Kessel; cf. Ibid, pp. 15, 29. Van Kessel painted mainly townscapes and panoramic views. He occasionally copied whole compositions by Ruisdael but more often he imitated the styles of contemporaries such as Hobbema, Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675), Jan Wijnants (1632-1684) and Jan van de Capelle (1626-1679).6Ibid., p. 2. As a result, his work is often catalogued under the wrong name. He is also confused with other minor artists in Ruisdael’s circle, such as Jan van de Meer II (1656-1705), Isaac Koene (1637/40-1713), Jacob Salomonsz van Ruysdael (1629/30-1681) and Anthonie van Borssom (1630-1677).7A. Davies, ‘Kessel, Jan (Johan) van’, Grove Art Online, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000046340, accessed 15 June 2020. His earliest known dated works are from 1661, but the Fondation Custodia in Paris holds a sketchbook that probably dates from c. 1659-66 (inv. no. 2006-T.30).8J. Giltaij, ‘A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-century Sketchbook’, Simiolus, 33 (2007-08), no. 1/2, p. 88.
As a draughtsman, Van Kessel worked primarily in black chalk and grey wash and emulated Ruisdael’s mature drawing style. His drawn oeuvre consists of townscapes, tree studies and farmsteads. Some of these sheets are studies for his paintings.9A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, pp. 81-93. He went on several trips through the Netherlands to draw, occasionally accompanied by Hobbema, who recorded some of the same sites.10Ibid., p. 88.
Van Kessel is often confused with the Flemish painter Jan van Kessel (1626-1679) with whom he bears no familial relationship. The Dutch Van Kessel died at the age of thirty-nine and was buried at the Nieuwezijdskapel in Amsterdam on 24 December 1680.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), p. 202; A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992; J. Briels, Peintres flamands au berceau du Sie`cle d’Or hollandais, Antwerp 1997, p. 347; A.I. Davies, ‘Kessel, Jan [Johan] van’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XVII, p. 920; J. Giltaij, ‘A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-century Sketchbook’, Simiolus, 33 (2007-08), no. 1/2, pp. 81-93
Entry
According to Davies, the traditional attribution to Van Kessel – which dates at least to the nineteenth century – is unlikely, unless a later hand extensively reworked the foreground with a pen.11A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, p. 217. Indeed, compared to other sheets in the museum’s collection, the outlines are much sharper. The inn on the hill, however, does reveal similarities to a comparable structure depicted on a sheet in the British Museum, London (inv. no. Gg. 2-309).12Ibid., no. d62, pl. 245.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Literature
A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, no. Dd14, pl. 279
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'possibly Jan van Kessel, Country Road with an Inn on a Hill, c. 1660 - c. 1680', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200141358
(accessed 8 December 2025 21:04:05).Footnotes
- 1Gelders Archief, 0407 Huis De Cannenburg, inv. no. 398.
- 2Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB Dopen, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 42, blad p. 273, aktenummer DTB 42.
- 3Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, Ondertrouwregister, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 491, blad p. 342, aktenummer DTB 491.
- 4A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, pp. 14-17.
- 5Hobbema acted as the godfather to Van Kessel’s son Thomas (1675-? 1676), and in 1690, ten years after Van Kessel’s death, he became the legal guardian of Isaac van Kessel; cf. Ibid, pp. 15, 29.
- 6Ibid., p. 2.
- 7A. Davies, ‘Kessel, Jan (Johan) van’, Grove Art Online, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000046340, accessed 15 June 2020.
- 8J. Giltaij, ‘A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-century Sketchbook’, Simiolus, 33 (2007-08), no. 1/2, p. 88.
- 9A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, pp. 81-93.
- 10Ibid., p. 88.
- 11A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, p. 217.
- 12Ibid., no. d62, pl. 245.