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 "Cuyp's" paintings over the years. Later life After he married Cornelia Boschman in 1658, the number of works produced by him declined almost to nothing. This may have been because his wife was a very religious woman and a not very big patron of the arts. It could also be that he became more active in the church under his wife's guidance. He was also active as deacon and elder of the Reformed Church. Legacy Though long lacking a modern biography, and with the chronology of his works rather unclear, his style emerged from various influences and makes his works distinctive, although his collaborations with his father and works by his imitators often make attributions uncertain. His follower Abraham van Calraet represents a particular problem, and the signatures on paintings are not to be relied on. The Rijksmuseum has reattributed many works to other painters; Abraham van Calraet does not even appear in a Museum catalogue until 1926, and even then he was not given his own entry. Gallery References Further reading Gerard Hoet; Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schildereyen; The Hague; 1752; vol. 2 Jean-Baptiste Descamps; La Vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois; Paris; [n. pub.]; 1753–1763; vol. 2, p. 80 George Agar-Ellis; Catalogue of the principal pictures in Flanders and Holland, 1822; London; W. Nicol; 1826; p. 70 John Smith; A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters Part III Containing the Lives and Works of Anthony Van Dyck and David Teniers; London; Smith and Son; 1831; vol. 5, no. 13 Willem Bürger; Trésors d'Art exposés à Manchester en 1857; Paris; Jules Renouard et Cie; 1857; p. 266 Jan F. van Someren; Oude Kunst in Nederland: Etsen van Willem Steelink; Amsterdam; [n. pub.]; 1890; pl. 3 Emile Michel, Une famille d'artistes hollandais: Les Cuyps, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 34, 1892,