Long-Awaited Exhibition for Rediscovered Old Master Michaelina Wautier Opens in Vienna

The 17th-century painter Michaelina Wautier was nearly forgotten by art historians until 1993, when one of her paintings was discovered in the storage area of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The monumental painting in question, Triumph of Bacchus, caught Belgian art history professor Katlijne Van der Stighelen’s eye while she was visiting the museum to look for a particular painting by Anthony van Dyck, another—much more well-known, and male—Flemish Baroque painter.

Van der Stighelen has spent decades trying to get museums to care about Wautier’s oeuvre and history, with limited success. But now, following shows held by the Museum aan de Stroom, the Rubens House, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Wautier is getting a big show at the Kunsthistorisches Museum—the site of Van der Stighelen original discovery.

“Michaelina Wautier, Painter” includes 29 paintings, a drawing, and a print—almost all of her surviving works. The paintings cover a range of genres, from portraits to history scenes to flower still lifes; some are loans from international museums and private collectors.

Triumph of Bacchus, at 9 by 11½ feet, is by far the largest work in the show. Like all of Wautier’s paintings, it was initially thought to be painted by a male contemporary.

According to the museum, Wautier painted herself into the scene of nude men and children surrounding the god of wine. “She appears scantily clad as a Bacchante with her own face making direct eye contact with the audience—a powerful gesture of female self-assertion,” the museum says in its press materials.

Highlights from the show, which runs through February 22, 2026, follow below.