The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is presenting the largest-ever exhibition dedicated to Flemish Baroque painter Michaelina Wautier (1614/18–1689), a long-forgotten artist now celebrated as one of the most remarkable rediscoveries in recent art history.
The show features 80 works in total, among them 31 by Michaelina Wautier (29 paintings, a signed drawing, and a rare print after a lost painting)—many from private collections and never before publicly exhibited. Highlights include her iconic Triumph of Bacchus and the full Five Senses cycle, shown together in Europe for the first time since their creation.
Wautier defied the gender norms of her time, producing bold history paintings, portraits, and allegories characterized by wit, innovation, and psychological insight. Her works were long misattributed to male artists due to their scale and subject matter. Despite limited biographical information—no letters or documents survive—her paintings reveal a confident, original artist who proudly signed her works "invenit et fecit." In Vienna, Wautier's paintings will be placed in a dialogue with works from classical antiquity, Rubens, van Dyck and other contemporaries.
Curator: Dr. Gerlinde Gruber Curator of Flemish Paintings, Kunsthistorisches Museum
