JAN VAN KESSEL THE ELDER | A SCULPTED CARTOUCHE WITH FLORAL STILL LIFE, WITH THE CHRIST CHILD AS SALVATOR MUNDI

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 7 April 1982, lot 160;

Private collection, Europe;

Whence sold, London, Christie's, 8 December 1995, lot 40, when acquired.

A. Blankert et al., Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat., Zwolle and Rotterdam 2000, p. 49, reproduced in colour;

H.-J. Raupp (ed.), Niederländische Malerei des. 17. Jahrhunderts der SØR Rusche-Sammlung, vol. 5, Stilleben und Tierstücke, Münster/Hamburg/London 2004, pp. 150–53, cat. no. 30, reproduced in colour (as Jan van Kessel and Erasmus Quellinus the Younger);

W. Pijbes, M. Aarts, M. J. Bok et al., At Home in the Golden Age, exh. cat., Zwolle 2008, p. 113, cat. no. 115, reproduced in colour;

K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan van Kessel der Ältere 1626–1679. Kritische Katalog der Gemälde, Lingen 2012, p. 343, cat. no. 591, reproduced p. 342.

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, Jezus in de Gouden Eeuw, 9 September 2000 – 7 January 2001, unnumbered;

Rotterdam, Kunsthal, At Home in the Golden Age, 9 February – 18 May 2008, no. 115.

The SØR Rusche Collection has been exhibited extensively over the last two decades. Please click here for further information.

Jan van Kessel was a member of the great Brueghel dynasty and spent his life in Antwerp. The grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder, Van Kessel took much inspiration from his relation’s work. Jan Brueghel the Elder was a pioneer in the development of the genre of garland paintings, which grew out of the imagery of the Counter-Reformation. The floral still lifes typically surround a devotional image or portrait, executed in collaboration with a figure painter.

It has been suggested that the author of the Christ Child here may be Erasmus Quellinus the Younger, pupil of Sir Peter Paul Rubens.

Van Kessel also collaborated with his uncle, David Teniers the Younger - interestingly the mark on the reverse of this panel indicates that it was made by the Antwerp panelmaker, François de Bout (active 1637–1649), who is known to have provided many of Teniers’ panels.