Ferdinand van Kessel (1648 – 1696), was a Flemish Baroque painter known for his

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s and genre pieces with monkeys.Ferdinand van Kessel
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Life

He was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

as the son of

Jan van Kessel the Elder Jan van Kessel the Elder or Jan van Kessel (I) (baptized 5 April 1626, Antwerp – 17 April 1679, Antwerp) was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp in the mid-17th century. A versatile artist, he practiced in many genres including studies of ...

, who was the grandson of

Jan Brueghel the Elder Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painting, Flemish painter and Draughtsmanship, draughtsman. He was the younger son of the eminent Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, Flemish ...

.Ferdinand van Kessel
in

Jacob Campo Weyerman Jacob Campo Weyerman (9 August 1677 – 9 March 1747) was a painter and writer during the period known as the Dutch Enlightenment. His work encompassed flower and fruit still life paintings, satirical magazines, plays, and biographies of painter ...

, ''De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, met een uytbreyding over de schilder-konst der ouden'', de Wed. E. Boucquet, H. Scheurleer, F. Boucquet, en J. de Jongh, 1729, pp. 291-303 He trained with his father from 1663. He moved to

Breda Breda ( , , , ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. ...

where he was the teacher of

and Louis de Moni. He died in Breda.

Work

According to Weyerman, Ferdinand's father was well known in his own day and only tipped his hat to

, who was the "Phoenix of landscape paintings with animals and birds". Though Ferdinand never achieved the level of his father, he was true to the van Kessel-Brueghel family name, and after

Jan Brueghel the Younger Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Younger ( , ; ; 13 September 1601 – 1 September 1678) was a Flemish Baroque painter. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Elder, and grandson of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, both prominent painters who ...

died he was the only painter in Antwerp who carried on the family tradition. He was discovered by Mr. Molo, a representative of the Polish king

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( (); (); () 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobieski was educated at the Jagiellonian University and toured Eur ...

who sent a few of his cabinet pieces to Poland. When these were well received, he invited van Kessel to come to

to make enough paintings to decorate a whole room in the

Wilanów Palace Wilanów Palace (, ) is a former royal palace located in the Wilanów district of Warsaw, Poland. It was built between 1677 and 1696 for the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John III Sobieski according to a design by architect Augustyn ...

. Van Kessel subsequently moved to Breda to fulfill this commission according to the taste of the Polish King. He began by painting scenes of the four elements on a sheet of copper three by four and a half feet wide. The four elements were each represented by cherubs, and the first painting was of a boy seated on an eagle representing ''Air'', surrounded by birds. ''Earth'' was a boy resting his arm on the back of a lion, surrounded by herbs, fruits and flowers. ''Fire'' was a boy surveying implements of war, with gold and silver inlaid harness, drums, embroidered silk banners and spears with damask coverlets, with a small monkey smoking a pipe and drinking a glass of rossoly (rosée du soleil). ''Water'' was a boy leaning on a crock symbolizing God's water source at the edge of a river surrounded with sea and river fish in the water, and pearls, corals and shells on shore. The whole was framed in ebony with a gold edging and surrounded by fourteen or fifteen symbols of the elements. Ferdinand van Kessel Moscow

This work was so well received that van Kessel was invited to make another series of the four continents for the King of Poland. Van Kessel continued to make paintings for him from his home in Breda and refused an invitation to work at the Polish court. When a fire damaged his paintings in Poland, he quickly offered to repaint the lost pieces from sketches he had made. He continued to fulfill commissions from Poland himself and subcontracted some of the work to other Antwerp painters (Historical allegories: Frans Ykens, Maas, Caspar Jacob van Opstal, Charles Emmanuel Biset; Landscapes: Pieter Spierinckx, Rysbregts, Peter van de Velde,

Abraham Genoels Abraham Genoels II or Abraham Genouil (nickname: Archimedes) (25 May 1640 – 10 May 1723) was a Flemish Baroque painter, draughtsman, engraver and tapestry designer. He is now mainly known for his landscape paintings, drawings and prints. He h ...

; Flowers: Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen, Jan Baptist Bosschaert,

Simon Hardimé Simon Hardimé (1672–1737) was a Flemish painter of mixed Walloon and Flemish descent.Jacob Campo Weyerman''De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen'' Volume 3, Dordrecht, Ab. Blussé en Zoon, 1729–1 ...

, and

Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Younger Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Younger (Antwerp, baptized 3 September 1651 - Antwerp, buried 20 March 1704) was a Flemish still life painter. He worked in a range of still life genres including flower and fruit still lifes, banquet still lifes, pronkst ...

). This lasted until the death of the King in 1696, when his patron Mr. Molo refused to pay for commissions already commenced but not completed. Van Kessel also made a ceiling painting for the palace of

William III of Orange William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 167 ...

in Breda.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kessel, Ferdinand van 1648 births 1696 deaths 17th-century Flemish painters Flemish Baroque painters Flemish landscape painters Painters from Antwerp