Lot 547
Property of an Important Private Collection, California
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.
Condition Report
Provenance
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.
Literature
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.
Exhibited
Brussels, Galerie Robert Finck, Tableaux de Maîtres flamands du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, 1964, no. 41;
Brussels, Musées des Beaux-Arts, Le siècle de Rubens, 15 October - 12 December 1965, no. 135;
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruegel. Une dynastie de peintres, 18 September - 18 November 1980, no. 262 (as dated 1660).
Catalogue note
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.