JAN VAN KESSEL THE ELDER (1626 – Antwerp

VP4734
JAN VAN KESSEL THE ELDER
(1626 – Antwerp - 1679)
A Pair of Natural History Studies:
Snakes, Spiders and Caterpillars contorted to spell
the Artist’s Name
Signed with insects and reptiles: JoAn/Kessel and
Dated lower right: Fecit. Anno. 1657
A Sprig of Redcurrants with a Moth, a Ladybird and
other Insects
Both on copper, 6 x 7⅞ ins. (15 x 20 cm)
PROVENANCE
With William Hallsborough Gallery, London, 1956, no. II
With David Koetser, Zurich, c. 1976-80
Private collection, Switzerland
With Johnny Van Haeften, London
Private Collection, The Netherlands, 2008-2014
EXHIBITED
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Art, Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, 1980, nos. 278-279
LITERATURE
F. Franchini Guelfi, “Otto Marseus van Schrieck a Firenze. Contributo all’ storia dei rapporti
franziate figurative nel seicento Toscano, I,” in Antichità Viva, vol. 16, no. 2, 1977, p. 15-26.
F. Franchini Guelfi, “Otto Marseus van Schrieck a Firenze. Contributo all’ storia dei rapporti
franziate figurative nel seicento Toscano, Ii,” in Antichità Viva, vol. 16, no. 4, 1977, p. 13-21,
fig. 8.
C. A. Breuer in Weltkunst, vol. 47, no. 4, 1977, no. II, reproduced
W. Laureyssens, M. Klinge, Bruegel. Uune dynastie de peintres, exh. cat., Brussels, 1980,
p. 330, cat. nos. 278 & 279, reproduced.
E. Greindl, Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle, Sterrebeek, 1983, p. 367-8,
nos. 65 & 135.
R. Lambert in L. Tongiorgi Tomasi (ed.) An Oak Spring Flora: flower illustration from the
fifteenth century to the present time, New Haven, 1997, p. 105, no. 26
K. Ertz & C. Ertz Nietze, Die Maler Jan van Kessel, Lingen, 2012, p. 283, no. 450, reproduced
(the former); p. 278, no. 436 (reproduced as no. 435).