 For Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart, 14th Duke of Alba Kessels sculpted "Reclining disk thrower", now in the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome, and "Cupid whetting his darts".In 1823 Ludwig I, the crown prince of Bavaria, visited him in his studio in Rome and ordered a marble bust of Admiral Tromp, which in 1845 was placed in the Walhalla memorial in Donaustauf, near Regensburg.Ludwig offered Kessels a position as director of the academy in Munich but Kessels remained in Rome.