Aelbert Cuyp - Misattribution of Paintings

Misattribution of Paintings

In addition to the scarcely documented and confirmed biography of Cuyp’s life, and even more so than his amalgamated style from his three main influences, there are yet other factors that have led to the misattribution and confusion over Aelbert Cuyp’s works for hundreds of years. His highly influenced style which incorporated Italianate lighting from Jan Both, broken brush technique and atonality from Jan van Goyen, and his ever-developing style from his father Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp was studied acutely by his most prominent follower, Abraham van Calraet. Calraet mimicked Cuyp’s style, incorporating the same aspects, and produced similar landscapes to that of the latter. This made it quite difficult to tell whose paintings where whose. Adding to the confusion is the similar initials between the two and the inconsistent signing of paintings which were produced by Cuyp’s studio.

Although Aelbert Cuyp signed many of his paintings with a script “A. Cuyp” insignia, many paintings were left unsigned (not to mention undated) after being painted, and so a similar signature was added later on, presumably by collectors who inherited/discovered the works. Furthermore, many possible Cuyp paintings were not signed but rather initialed “A. C.” referring to his name. However, Abraham van Calraet could also have used the same initials to denote a painting. Although this is unlikely (as Calraet would likely have signed his paintings “A. v.C.”), this brings up the question of how paintings were signed to show ownership. Most original Cuyp paintings were signed by him, and in the script manner in which his name was inscribed. This would denote that the painting was done almost entirely by him. Conversely, paintings which came out of his workshop that were not necessarily physically worked on by Cuyp but merely overseen by him technically, were marked with A.C. to show that it was his instruction which saw the paintings’ completion. Cuyp’s pupils and assistants often worked on paintings in his studio, and so most of the work of a painting could be done without Cuyp ever touching the canvas, but merely approving its finality. Hence, the initialed inscription rather than a signature.

Common among the mislabeled works are all of the reasons identified for misattributing Cuyp’s works: the lack of biography and chronology of his works made it difficult to discern when paintings were created (making it difficult to pinpoint an artist); contentious signatures added to historians’ confusion as to who actually painted the works; and the collaborations and influences by different painters makes it hard to justify that a painting is genuinely that of Aelbert Cuyp; and finally, accurate identification is made extremely difficult by the fact that this same style was copied (rather accurately) by his predecessor. As it turns out, even the historians and expert researchers have been fooled and forced to reassess their conclusions over “Cup’s” paintings over the years.