Jan van Kessel the Elder

With Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam;
Acquired from the above in 1933 by a private collector;
Thence by family descent.

Amsterdam, Jacques Goudstikker, Tentoonstelling Het Stilleven, 18 February - 26 March 1933, no. 181;
Rotterdam, Boymans van Beuningen Museum, 1 - 23 April 1933, no. 49.

M-L. Hairs, The Flemish Flower painters in the XVIIth Century, Brussels 1985, p. 483.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine bevelled oak panel, with narrow added strips all round, presumably to enlarge it to fit the frame. The added edging strips have been retouched and there have been occasional slightly raised past flakes at the extreme edges of the painting itself where the retouching has encroached slightly onto the background and onto the base ledge, mainly in the corners. The upper right background is completely untouched, with some wider retouching at the top edge above the white butterfly and the pink rose, as well as in various places down the left edge and at the lower darker right edge. There are also one or two lost flakes in the main body of the painting that have been filled in the past, in particular one unretouched filling in the breast of the first blue tit, and another in the little central bird. The leaf at centre left has a little old flake, and there is a minute flake in the background just above the blue tits, and possibly also in the upper right background under the fly and perhaps on the surface of the water in the vase. However any flaking is clearly very old and the surface is exceptionally well preserved overall. The still life itself is beautifully intact down to the finest detail, from the exquisite butterfly at lower left, and indeed all the insects, which have retained their legs and antennae complete, to the perfect unworn centres of the pink roses, where the deep madder glazing can often be thin. The rich darks of the leaves are also immaculately preserved. The signature does have a small rubbed patch by the central "el" but is otherwise crisp and clear. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Jan van Kessel was a member of the Brueghel dynasty of painters, for he was Jan Brueghel the Elder's grandson on his mother's side. He was almost certainly trained by his uncle Jan Brueghel the Younger, whose work he copied.¹  Even in his formative years he seems to have specialised as a painter of flower pieces. When he was accepted into the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1644-45 he was specifically referred to as a flower painter, and when only a few years later in 1649 Erasmus Quellinus's portrait of him was engraved, it bore a caption describing him as a  'highly esteemed painter of flowers'.

The present panel is an exceptional example of Kessel's maturity, and remains in a remarkable state of preservation. In its simple yet closely observed naturalistic detail and its bright fresh colours it perfectly illustrates the hallmarks of the style that had brought Van Kessel so much success. A simple glass vase stands slightly off-centre to the left of the composition. The simple bouquet consists of two carmine roses, two white and three pink roses and two martagon lilies interspersed with blue and white convolvuli. Around it swarm a profusion of birds and insects, including finches, bluetits, a wren, snail and caterpillars and numerous butterflies. Even the droplets of water and the spots of rust on the leaves are faithfully recorded. A very closely related version of the composition is recorded by Hairs with the Leger Galleries in London in 1979, where a similar bouquet is set against an unusual pale grey background.² The two are most easily distinguished by the addition here of the birds. Van Kessel's still lifes normally teem with insects, a reflection of his almost scientific interest in the natural kingdom, which he recorded in beautifully observed and meticulous studies, but it is rare indeed that he chose to introduce birds into his flower pieces. These are more normally found as subjects in their own right or part of wider allegories of the element of air. A good example of the former was sold in these Rooms, 7 December 2005, lot 19.

 

1. The reference comes from Jan Brueghel II's own diary: J. Denucé, Brieven en Documenten betreffend Jan Brueghel I en II, Antwerp 1934, p. 157.
2. Hairs, op. cit., p. 296, reproduced in colour plate 98.