Jan Van Kessel Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Jan van Kessel, Flemish still life painter, was born in Antwerp in 1626, into a family dedicated to art. The famous Jan Brueghel the Elder was his grandfather and his son followed in his footsteps by signing with the same name as his father. Read the full biography

Jan van Kessel, Flemish still life painter, was born in Antwerp in 1626, into a family dedicated to art. The famous Jan Brueghel the Elder was his grandfather and his son followed in his footsteps by signing with the same name as his father. Jan van Kessel joined the Antwerp painters' guild and his art was influenced by Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), a Dutch painter who gained fame and notoriety for the beauty of his paintings depicting flowers and nature.
In 1645, Jan van Kessel joined the Antwerp painters' guild, while his main works focused on miniatures representing nature, floral still lifes, allegorical series showing the animal kingdom, the four elements, the senses or the parts of the world. Van Kessel was obsessed with picturesque detail and dedicated his work to the natural world, using illustrations from scientific texts as a source for his paintings and painting objects with an almost scientific precision. Among his best works, we can also mention the depictions of animals, especially insects.
Jan van Kessel died in Antwerp in 1679.