Sprig of White Currants with Insects

• Sprig of White Currant with Insects
• Sprig of White Currants with Insects

SK-A-793

• signature, bottom centre: ‘I·V·KESSEL·F·’
• inscription, on the reverse: ‘6’

This scene is painted on a copper panel. Its smooth surface was well suited to meticulous and detailed finish. Van Kessel made dozens of such little ‘coppers’ of insects and other animals, which he would arrange in a larger composition. They may have also served as decorative panels for a small cabinet of curiosities.

painter: Jan van Kessel (I)

c. 1653 - c. 1661

olieverf op koper

• height 10.9 cm x width 14.6 cm
• height 20.1 cm x width 23.6 cm x depth 2.5 cm

purchase 1882

Public domain

…; sale, Dr P.A. Borger (†) (Arnhem), H. Joosten (1818-82, Haarlem), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 13 November 1882, no. 55, fl. 71;{Copy RKD, formerly owned by Victor de Stuers; it is illegibly inscribed against this lot, but no. 55 is one in the list of lots written by him on the end paper. A label on the reverse identifies the picture as from the Borger/Josten sale, and as no. 239 of the inventory, without giving further details.} acquired by the museum, February 1884;{NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 192 (24 February 1883); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 236 (14 February 1884); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 39, p. 342, no. 10 (26 February 1884).} on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 2004-08

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20013605