 Another important patron was William I, King of the Netherlands for whom he sculpted "Mars resting", a colossal marble now at the palace of Laeken, for which Kessels received the Order of the Netherlands Lion.In our days, Kessels is no longer regarded as a major artist but in his lifetime he was famous.As he belonged to the Roman school of neoclassical sculpture, founded by Canova and Thorvaldsen, along with Johann Gottfried Schadow, Albert Wolff and others, he adhered to idealist aesthetics and to the laws prescribed by classical art.