Author Description

In Antwerp in the summer of 2018 the MAS, in collaboration with the Rubens House, will be organizing a first-ever monographic exhibition of the forgotten female artist Michaelina Wautier (1614-89). She was born in Mons but developed her career in Brussels, where she was working in around 1650. The artist maintained contacts with the court of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria who had four of her works in his collection. We know of some thirty paintings and one drawing by her hand. More than a third of these are signed in full and dated. Wautier painted masterful historical pieces, incisive portraits, endearing genre scenes and tranquil flower arrangements. There is no doubt that she displayed a ground-breaking versatility. Challenging themes, masterly techniques and a grand scale are all characteristic of her work. All her pieces were produced between 1643 and 1659. Her masterpiece is undoubtedly The Triumph of Bacchus held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Michaelina Wautier appears in the painting as a seminude bacchante and is the only one of the figures present to look directly at the viewer.