Rijksmuseum

Object data

pen and brownish-black ink, brownish-grey wash, over traces of graphite

height 151 mm × width 227 mm

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;¹ 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

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 1641.² In 1668, he married Clara Swichters (?-?).³ The couple had several children, but only one son, Isaac (1670-?), made it to adulthood.⁴

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.⁵ 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).⁶ 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).⁷ 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).⁸

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.⁹ He went on several trips through the Netherlands to draw, occasionally accompanied by Hobbema, who recorded some of the same sites.¹⁰

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.¹¹ 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).¹²

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: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54017

(accessed 8 January 2025 13:11:47).