View of the Ruins of the Nave of the Church in Bergen, Noord-Holland

attributed to Jan van Kessel, c. 1660 - c. 1665

  • Artwork typedrawing
  • Object numberRP-T-1888-A-1815
  • Dimensionsheight 98 mm x width 133 mm
  • Physical characteristicsblack chalk, with pen and black ink and grey wash; framing line in brown-black ink

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Landscape with a Country Lane beside a Cottage and a Cornfield at the Right

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View of a Farmyard

Jan van Kessel, after 1665 - 1669

View of a Farmyard

Country Road with an Inn on a Hill

Jan van Kessel (possibly), c. 1660 - c. 1680

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Jan van Kessel (attributed to)

View of the Ruins of the Nave of the Church in Bergen, Noord-Holland

c. 1660 - c. 1665

Inscriptions

  • inscribed on verso: lower left, in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 90 Z; lower left of centre, in pencil, 12; lower right, in a modern hand, in pencil, Waterlo; upper right, by Welcker, in pencil, v Kessel sr? / AW; upper left, in a seventeenth or an eighteenth-century hand, in brown ink, De Kerk te Obdam. Ao 1711 (De Kerk te and Ao 1711 were added later in pencil; the entire inscription is later crossed out in pencil); below that, in a modern hand, in pencil, Bergen

  • stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Condition

Thinning in the upper right and left corners; two small brown spots in the sky

Provenance

…; acquired by the museum (L. 2228), as Anthonie Waterloo, 18881For security reasons, the drawing was transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken to the museum in 1888.

Object number: RP-T-1888-A-1815

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 (as in the present case) 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

The church in Bergen was destroyed by fire in 1574. The choir was rebuilt in 1597 with an elegant octagonal tower.11A.J. van der Aa, Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden, 13 vols., Gorinchem 1839-51, II (1840), p. 291; I. Tirion, Het verheerlykt Nederland of Kabinet van hedendaagsche gezigten van steden, dorpen, Amsterdam (1752-54), IV (1752), no. 333.

The sheet was traditionally attributed to Anthonie Waterloo (1609-1690), but the drawing bears no connection with the work of this artist. Instead, as was suggested in a note on the mount by Albert Welcker, the drawing style somewhat resembles that of Jan van Kessel. For instance, the way in which the foreground is rendered with short brushstrokes in various shades of grey is comparable to his work, as well as some of the harsher chalk lines and shading in the building. Compare, for instance, the present sheet with the View of the Utrechtse Poort in Amsterdam under Construction in the Amsterdam Museum (inv. no. TA 10200)12A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, cat. no. d10, pl. 193. or Village Church under Trees by Water in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt-am-Main (inv. no. 3474), both dated towards the mid-1660s.13Ibid., cat. no. d43, pl. 226.

Ingrid Oud, 2000

Literature

Jaarverslag Rijksprentenkabinet 1888, p. 24 (as Anthonie Waterloo)

Citation

I. Oud, 2000, 'attributed to Jan van Kessel, View of the Ruins of the Nave of the Church in Bergen, Noord-Holland, Bergen (Noord-Holland), c. 1660 - c. 1665', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200145547

(accessed 8 December 2025 16:23:56).

Footnotes

  • 1For security reasons, the drawing was transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken to the museum in 1888.
  • 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.J. van der Aa, Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden, 13 vols., Gorinchem 1839-51, II (1840), p. 291; I. Tirion, Het verheerlykt Nederland of Kabinet van hedendaagsche gezigten van steden, dorpen, Amsterdam (1752-54), IV (1752), no. 333.
  • 12A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, cat. no. d10, pl. 193.
  • 13Ibid., cat. no. d43, pl. 226.