In the exhibition in autumn 2025, Michaelina Wautier‘s extraordinary artistry and the artistic quality of her paintings will be experienced on a par with contemporaries such as Peter Paul Rubens or Anthonis van Dyck. Her great series on the five senses will be shown in Europe for the first time. The show offers a female perspective of the time on both traditional and innovative pictorial themes and the male body.
Thanks to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm‘s collecting activities, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna has the world‘s most important collection of Wautier‘s paintings. The comparison of her works with those of her contemporaries makes the extraordinary quality of her work visible, so that today she can be rediscovered as an outstanding artist of her time.
The comparison of her works with those of her contemporaries makes the extraordinary quality of her work visible, so that today she can be rediscovered as an outstanding artist of her time.
Contribute to our mission to present the works of the forgotten master Michaelina Wautier in new splendor in autumn 2025!
In the major autumn exhibition in 2025, we would like to present a depiction of St Joachim by Michaelina Wautier that has never been shown to the public before. In the 18th century, it was still part of the imperial gallery in the Stallburg, where it hung as an oval above the door of the so-called ‘Black Cabinet‘. This work is currently in storage.
In the 1960s, the badly damaged painting was conserved and the image format was expanded to a rectangle. The canvas was covered with a new fabric. The painting now has disturbing putties.
For the exhibition, we would like to examine this painting and improve the unsatisfactory aesthetic impression without completely obscuring the history of the painting. It also needs to be reframed. Additional X-ray examinations should provide information on whether the artist had actually originally intended the work to be an oval.
Gaspar de Crayer‘s Annunciation also needs urgent maintenance. Since this altarpiece was an important source of inspiration for Wautier‘s Annunciation and we would like to present both works to the public together, your financial support is urgently needed here too.
We count on your support!
With your contribution, you will be able to finance the image maintenance and scientific examination of these masterpieces and to present Wautier‘s paintings in new splendor in autumn 2025.
We are happy to advise you personally!
Mag. Anna-Gabriella Dixon
spenden@khm.at