 According to Houbraken he was born in Amsterdam in 1648 and made clever farm scenes that he first drew from life before making his oil paintings.Houbraken went on to mention that he was best known for his winter scenes and died in 1698.Houbraken couldn't discover whether he was related to the Jan van Kessel of Antwerp, who was mentioned in Cornelis de Bie's book Het Gulden Cabinet.