Ferdinand van Kessel (1648 – 1696)

• Was a Flemish Baroque painter.
• He was born in Antwerp as the son of Jan van Kessel the Elder, who was the grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder.
• He trained with his father from 1663.
• He moved to Breda where he was the teacher of Jacob Campo Weyerman and Louis de Moni.
• He was painting scenes of the four elements on a sheet of copper three by four and a half feet wide.

• Ferdinand van Kessel was working doing panting for the Polish King.

• To fulfill commissions from Poland he subcontracted some of the work to other Antwerp painters (Historical allegories: Frans Ykens, Maas, Caspar Jacob van Opstal, Charles Emmanuel Biset; Landscapes: Pieter Spierinckx, Rysbregts, Peter van de Velde, Abraham Genoels; Flowers: Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen, Jan Baptist Bosschaert, Simon Hardimé, and Jan Pauwel Gillemans the Younger).

• This lasted until the death of the King in 1696.

• Van Kessel also made a ceiling painting for the palace of William III of Orange in Breda.

• He died in Breda.

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