Biography
Born
1626
Died
1679
Nationality
Netherlandish
Death place
Antwerpen
Jan van Kessel was one of the finest Flemish still-life painters of the seventeenth century. He first trained with his father, who collaborated with the famous artist Jan Brueghel the Elder. His father married Brueghel’s daughter, and when their son Jan grew up, he studied with his uncle, Jan Brueghel the Younger. Bolstered by his strong artistic pedigree, Jan became a successful painter, mainly of small scale pictures of flowers, fruit, vegetables and insects on copper. He often collaborated with other artists, and would paint flower garlands and decorative borders around paintings by artists such as David Teniers and Willem van Herp. He died in 1679 in severe debt, leaving thirteen children.
