Jan Van Kessel II (1654-1708) Still Life With Game, Oil On Copper

This precious oil on copper is the work of the Flemish painter Jan Van Kessel II. In a theatrical staging with a clever play of shadows and lights are exposed before us the trophies of hunt: small and large game. Skillfully arranged in the center of the foreground in front of the viewer the pile of partridge next to a hare, flanked by a deer and two piverts left. Two uninvited visitors are also witnesses to this abundant display. The cat leapt through an open door ready to enjoy an impromptu feast. The rooster on the right as for him interested by a strand of straw on the ground, seems indifferent to the profusion of game at his side. Birds hung on the wall cast shadows offering in this way a depth to the composition. A curlew attached to the hind leg to a nail, unfolds its magnificent plumage. On an entablature in the adjacent room the green vegetables are exposed: a cabbage, asparagus, celery branch.
With remarkable finesse the artist strives to paint feathers and hair to achieve a very realistic effect. These many small features are made using brushes with a single coat. This incredible detail allows you to appreciate all the talent and incredible patience that the painter shows and whose details can be admired through a magnifying glass or by zooming the photos.
Beautiful frame veneered with tortoiseshell on a gold background and decorated with tortoiseshell cabochons, inlaid by boxwood net, in a frame of ebonized wood.

Dimensions: copper: h. 25.5 cm, l. 31.5 cm. Frame: h. 41 cm, l. 47 cm.

Provenance: sale Tajan 2001, as Jan Van Kessel the Younger, appraised by the Cabinet Turquin
private collection, Paris

Jan van Kessel II, (Antwerp 1654 - Madrid 1708), called "the Younger", is the great-grandson of Jan Brueghel de Velours, son of Jan van Kessel the Elder and brother of Ferdinand van Kessel. He trained with his father, Jan van Kessel the Elder, specializing in the still life of plants and animals. Naturally beginning his career in the paternal workshop, however, he left Antwerp for Spain in 1680 where he became a portraitist at the court of Charles II from 1686. If his portraits are no longer known today, his corpus of still lifes has reached us. It is with these works in particular that he became famous.