View of the Bergpoort and Bergkerk in Deventer

Deventer, c. 1665

Object data

brush and brown and grey wash, over black chalk; framing lines in brown ink (upper, lower, and right border) and black chalk (left border)

height 188 mm × width 265 mm

Inscriptions

signed: lower left, in brown ink, Jv Kessel (the first two initials in ligature)
inscribed on verso, in pencil: upper left, in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand, De Bergpoort en Bergkerk, / te Deventer; to the left and above that, 11; lower left, ƒ m:o:-; above that, in a modern hand, 515 Z; lower centre, in a modern hand, J v Kessel
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of De Vos Jbzn (L. 1450); right of that, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: unidentified

Condition

Brown spots, mostly along the edges; thinning at the corners

Provenance

…; collection Sybrand Feitama II (1694-1758), Amsterdam;¹ his sale, Amsterdam (B. de Bosch), 16 October 1758 sqq., Album K, no. 54 (‘De Bergpoort te Deventer, geteekend als de vorige’), fl. 9, to Pieter Calkoen Willemsz (1712-80), Amsterdam;² his sale, Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley), 10 September 1781 sqq., Album D, no. 323 (‘De Berg Poort en Berg-Kerk te Deventer […] door J.v. Kessel’);³ …; sale, Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam, (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album C, no. 33 (‘De Bergpoort en Bergkerk te Deventer. Als voren […] door denzelven [J. van Kessel]’), fl. 61, to ‘De Vries’;⁴ sale, J.A. Mendes de Leon (Amsterdam, 1784-1842) a.o., Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 20 November 1843 sqq., Album C, no. 22 (‘Gezigt op de Berg-Poort en Kerk te Deventer […] door J. van Kessel’), fl. 16 to ‘De Vries’;⁵ …; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 264 (‘Jean van Kessel. Vue sur Deventer. Signé par le Maître, et annoté au revers de la pièce: ‘‘De Bergpoort en Bergkerk te Deventer.’’ Au lavis de bistre […]’), fl. 35, to the Vereniging Rembrandt;⁶ …; acquired from the Vereniging Rembrandt by the museum (L. 2228), 1888⁷

Object number: RP-T-1888-A-1637

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

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 1641.⁸ In 1668, he married Clara Swichters (?-?).⁹ The couple had several children, but only one son, Isaac (1670-?), made it to adulthood.¹⁰

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.¹¹ 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).¹² 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).¹³ 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).¹⁴

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.¹⁵ He went on several trips through the Netherlands to draw, occasionally accompanied by Hobbema, who recorded some of the same sites.¹⁶

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 same signature, albeit written in a different shade of ink, is found on a drawing depicting Purmerend Castle, near Monnickendam, Waterland, in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. no. C 1882).¹⁷ The ligature of the J and the v deviates from the artist’s usual signature. According to Davies, the name might have been added by another hand, or Van Kessel could have been experimenting with his own signature.¹⁸ As the rest of the signature and his customary manner of signing are quite similar, the latter possibility seems the most likely.

The present drawing can be dated to the mid-1660s, when Van Kessel made numerous topographical views of the Netherlands. He travelled throughout the country with his friend and fellow artist Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), who made three sketches of the nearby watermill.¹⁹ Van Kessel drew several views of Deventer, both in his sketchbook held in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 2006-T.30), and on individual sheets. He probably visited the city on more than one occasion.²⁰

In the background of the present view is the Bergkerk, a church that dates from the fifteenth century, except for its two towers, which were built around 1200. The Bergpoort in the foreground was located on the east side of the city and consisted of an inner gate (Binnen-Bergpoort) and an outer gate (Buiten-Bergpoort). The former, which was partially demolished in 1619, is depicted here. The outer gate, with reliefs from the workshop of Hendrik de Keyser (1565-1621), was dismantled in 1879 and relocated to the garden of the Rijksmuseum.²¹ From the fourteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the space between the two gates was used as a lumber market. The wood was stacked there after having been conveyed over the River Shipbeek from Twente and Westphalia.²² The stray pieces of wood propped in the foreground may allude to this.

Ingrid Oud, 2000

Literature

C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux maîtres hollandais et flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel […] precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, 2 vols., London 1821, p. 120; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 104; A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, pp. 235-36, no. d15, pl. 198; B.P.J. Broos and M. Schapelhouman, Nederlandse tekenaars geboren tussen 1600 en 1660, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1993 (Oude tekeningen in het bezit van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, waaronder de collectie Fodor, vol. 4), p. 110, under no. 79

Citation

I. Oud, 2000, 'Jan van Kessel, View of the Bergpoort and Bergkerk in Deventer, Deventer, c. 1665', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54020

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