Jan van Kessel the Elder

An Allegory of Air

Auction Closed

January 27, 09:38 PM GMT

Estimate

120,000 - 180,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from an Important Private Collection

Jan van Kessel the Elder

Antwerp 1626 - 1679

An Allegory of Air

signed and dated lower center: J.v. kessel fecit anno 166[1?], (anno 1661 more faint than the rest of the signature)

oil on canvas

canvas: 23⅝ by 32⅞ in.; 60 by 83.5 cm.

framed: 30¼ by 39⅜ in.; 76.8 by 100 cm.

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 24 June 1964, lot 80, to R. Farrow;
With Galerie Robert Finck, Brussels, 1964;
From whom acquired by E. de Bonvoison, Brussels;
Thence by descent to his son;
By whom anonymously sold ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2007, lot 22 (mistakenly as Jan van Kessel II, but with the life dates of Jan van Kessel the Elder);
From whom acquired.

G. Marlier, in P. Roberts-Jones (ed.), Le siècle de Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1965, p. 126, no. 135, reproduced;
W. Laureyssens, in P. Roberts-Jones (ed.), Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1980, p. 320, no. 262, reproduced;
K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Die Maler Jan van Kessel, Luca 2012, p. 376, cat. no. 672, reproduced.

In this wonderful Allegory of Air, which is teeming with birds of every variety, Jan van Kessel the Elder revisits a subject first made popular by his grandfather, Jan Brueghel the Elder. Such allegorical works were often repeated with and without variation by his son Jan Brueghel the Younger (uncle of Van Kessel), in whose workshop the young Van Kessel trained. The present composition, though influenced by his predecessors, is largely of Van Kessel's own devising.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the present attribution on the basis of digital photographs.