1811 and 1813) over commissions charged to examine the state of the higher educational establishments in the districts beyond the Alps and the Rhine which had been annexed to France, and to report upon the means by which these could be affiliated with the central university. Three separate reports on this subject were published by him. In his capacity, again, of perpetual secretary of the Institute, he not only prepared a number of éloges historiques on deceased members of the Academy of Sciences, but he was the author of a number of reports on the history of the physical and natural sciences, the most important of these being the Rapport historique sur le progrès des sciences physiques depuis 1789, published in 1810. Prior to the fall of Napoleon (1814) he had been admitted to the council of state, and his position remained unaffected by the restoration of the Bourbons. He was elected chancellor of the university, in which capacity he acted as interim president of the council of public instruction, whilst he also, as a Lutheran, superintended the faculty of Protestant theology. In 1819 he was appointed president of the committee of the interior, and retained the office until his death. In 1826 he was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour; and in 1831 he was raised by Louis Philippe to the rank of peer of France, and was subsequently appointed president of the council of state. In the beginning of 1832 he was nominated to the ministry of the interior, but on the 13th of May he died in Paris after a brief illness.
See P. J. M. Flourens, Éloge historique de G. Cuvier, published as an introduction to the Éloges historiques of Cuvier; Histoire des travaux de Georges Cuvier (3rd ed., Paris, 1858); A. P. de Candolle, “Mort de G. Cuvier,” Bibliothèque universelle (1832, 59, p. 442); C. L. Laurillard, “Cuvier,” Biographie universelle, supp. vol. 61 (1836); Sarah Lee, Memoirs of Cuvier, translated into French by T. Lacordaire (1833).
CUVILLES, FRANÇOIS DE (1698–c. 1767), French architect and engraver. He helped to carry the French rococo taste to
Germany—he was summoned about 1720 to Cologne by the elector
James Clement; in 1738 he became architect to the elector of
Bavaria, and afterwards occupied the same position towards the
emperor Charles VII. His style, while essentially thin, is often
painfully elaborate and bizarre. He designed mirrors and
consoles, balustrades for staircases, ceilings and fireplaces, and
in furniture, beds and commodes especially. He also laid out
parks and gardens. He wrote several treatises on artistic and
decorative subjects, which were edited by his son, François
de Cuvilles the younger, who succeeded his father at the court
of Munich.
CUXHAVEN, or Kuxhaven, a seaport town of Germany, belonging to the state of Hamburg, and situated at the extremity of the west side of the mouth of the Elbe, 71 m. by rail N.W. from Hamburg. Pop. (1900) 6898. The harbour is good and secure, and is much frequented by vessels delayed in the Elbe by unfavourable weather. A new harbour was made in 1891–1896, having a depth of 26¼ ft., with a fore port 1000 ft. long by 800 ft. wide; and it is now the place of departure and arrival of the mail steamers of the Hamburg-American Steamship Company, who in 1901 transferred here a part of their permanent
staff. The port is free, i.e. outside the customs union (Zollverein), the imports being principally coals, bricks and timber, and the exports fish. There is a fishing fleet, for which a new harbour was opened in 1892. Though lying on a bare strand, the town is much frequented as a bathing place by Hamburgers. It is
strongly fortified, and there are a lighthouse, and lifeboat and pilot
stations. The town only dates from 1873, having been formed
by uniting the villages of Ritzebüttel and Cuxhaven, which had
belonged to Hamburg since 1394.
CUYABÁ, or Cuiabá, capital of the inland state of Matto
Grosso, Brazil, about 972 m. N.W. of Rio de Janeiro, on the
Cuyabá river near its discharge into the São Lourenço, the
principal Brazilian tributary of the Paraguay. Pop. (1890)
14,507; of the municipality, 17,815. The surrounding country
is thickly populated. Cuyabá has uninterrupted steamer communication
with Montevideo, about 2500 m. distant, but has
no land communication with the national capital, except by
telegraph. The climate is hot and malaria is prevalent. Cuyabá
was founded in 1719 by Paulista gold hunters, and its gold-washings,
now apparently exhausted, yielded rich results in
the 18th century. It is the see of a bishopric and headquarters
of an important military district, having an arsenal and military
barracks.
CUYAPO, a town of the province of Nueva Ecija, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 28 m. N.N.W. of San Isidro, the capital. Pop. (1903) 16,292. Rice is grown here. In 1907 the town of Nampicuan was formed from part of Cuyapo.
CUYP, the name of a Dutch family which produced two generations of painters. The Cuyps were long settled at Dordrecht, in the neighbourhood of which they had a country house, where Albert Cuyp (the most famous) was born and bred.
The eldest member of the family who acquired fame was Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, born it is said at Dordrecht in 1575, and taught by Abraham Bloemaert of Utrecht. He is known to have been alive in 1649, and the date of his death is obscure. J. G. Cuyp’s pictures are little known. But he produced portraits in various forms, as busts and half-lengths thrown upon plain backgrounds, or groups in rooms, landscapes and gardens. Solid and clever as an imitator of nature in its ordinary garb, he is always spirited, sometimes rough, but generally plain, and quite as unconscious of the sparkle conspicuous in Frans Hals as incapable of the concentrated light-effects peculiar to Rembrandt. In portrait busts, of which there are signed examples dated 1624, 1644, 1646 and 1649, in the museums of Berlin, Rotterdam, Marseilles, Vienna and Metz, his treatment is honest, homely and true; his touch and tone firm and natural. In portraying children he is fond of introducing playthings and pets—a lamb, a goat or a roedeer; and he reproduces animal life with realistic care. In a family scene at the Amsterdam Museum we have likenesses of men, women, boys and girls with a cottage and park. In the background is a coach with a pair of horses. These examples alone give us a clue to the influences under which Albert Cuyp grew up, and explain to some extent the direction which his art took as he rose to manhood.
Albert Cuyp (1620–1691), the son of Jacob Gerritsz by Grietche Dierichsdochter (Dierich’s daughter), was born at Dordrecht. He married in 1658 Cornelia Bosman, a rich widow, by whom he had an only daughter. By right of his possessions at Dordwyck, Cuyp was a vassal of the county of Holland, and privileged to sit in the high court of the province. As a citizen he was sufficiently well known to be placed on the list of those from whom William III., stadtholder of the Netherlands, chose the regency of Dordrecht in 1672. His death, and his burial on the 7th of November 1691 in the church of the Augustines of Dordrecht, are historically proved. But otherwise the known facts concerning his life are few. He seldom dates his pictures, but it appears probable that he ceased to paint about 1675. It has been said that Albert was the pupil of his father. The scanty evidence of Dutch annalists to this effect seems confirmed by a certain coincidence in the style and treatment of father and son. That he was a pupil of van Goyen has been surmised on the strength of the style of his early works. It has been likewise stated that Albert was skilled, not only in the production of portraits, landscapes and herds, but in the representation of still life. His works are supposed to be divisible into such as bear the distinctive marks C. or A. C. in cursive characters, the letters A. C. in Roman capitals, and the name “A. Cuyp” in full. A man of Cuyp’s acknowledged talent may have been versatile enough to paint in many different styles. But whether he was as versatile as some critics have thought is a question not quite easy to answer. It is to be observed that pieces assigned to Cuyp representing game, shell-fish and fruit, and inscribed A. C. in Roman capitals (Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Berlin museums), though cleverly executed, are not in touch or treatment like other pictures of less dubious authenticity, signed either with C. or A. C. or “A. Cuyp” in cursive letters. The panels marked C. and A. C. in cursive are portraits or landscapes, with herds, and interiors of stables or sheds, in which there are cows, horses and poultry. The subjects and their handling are akin to those which strike us in panels bearing the master’s full
