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 1641.¹¹Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB Dopen, archiefnummer 5001, inventarisnummer 42, blad p. 273, aktenummer DTB 42. In 1668, he married Clara Swichters (?-?).²²Amsterdam, 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.³³A.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.⁴⁴Hobbema 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).⁵⁵Ibid., 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).⁶⁶A. 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).⁷⁷J. 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.⁸⁸A.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.⁹⁹Ibid., 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