Jan van Kessel the Younger are attributed about 200 small still lifes produced in Southern Europe in the late 16th and early 17th century. Jan van Kessel the Younger's small known authentic oeuvre is different in style and execution and substantially higher in quality than the works, which have now been attributed to Pseudo Jan van Kessel the Younger. His portrait style was described by his contemporary Antonio Palomino as very close to that of his fellow Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. Van Kessel was a specialist of the genre of group portraits. An example is the "Portrait of a family in a garden" in
Gonzales Coques such as Rubens. However, the most important influence on his work was van Dyck. Some of Coques’ works can in fact be regarded as the transposition of van Dyck compositions to smaller scale cabinet pieces. It can be said that he provided to well-off bourgeoisie what van Dyck was providing to his aristocratic patron. In that role he replaced from the 1640s the other leading 17th century portrait painter to the bourgeoisie in Antwerp, Cornelis de Vos, who concentrated from that time onwards more on his history paintings. He is credited with introducing a new kind of portrait genre in