Michaelina Wautier, Painter
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
30 September 2025 – 22 February 2026
The Klesch Collection was delighted to include the Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini and Young Man Smoking a Pipe in the exhibition ‘Michaelina Wautier, Painter’, a major celebration of one of the seventeenth century’s most fascinating artists. This dual-venue exhibition was on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna from 30 September 2026 and will be hosted at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from March 2026.
Seven years after the groundbreaking retrospective in Antwerp which put Wautier on the map, this exhibition brought together nearly the entirety of her known oeuvre, including many works newly attributed to her since 2018. A favourite of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and one of the most sought-after portraitists in Brussels, Michaelina enjoyed huge success in her own day. Her reputation placed her on par with some of her greatest contemporaries, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Defying societal conventions, she gained recognition for her ambitious history paintings at a time when women artists were largely confined to still lifes or genre scenes. This exhibition offers the opportunity to explore her distinct artistic voice and rare female perspective on both traditional and innovative pictorial subjects.
Likely commissioned by the Archduke, the Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini ranks among Wautier’s most impressive likenesses. In the exhibition, the portrait occupied a central position and was placed alongside traditional Chinese robes, hats and a copy of Martini’s Novus Atlas Sinesis (1655), the first European atlas of China. Young Man Smoking a Pipe exemplifies Wautier’s free and open brushwork, here applied to genre painting. The subject invites interpretation as an allegory of the sense of smell and was shown in dialogue with a surviving complete cycle of the five senses.
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Michaelina Wautier, Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini, 1654
Michaelina Wautier, Young Man Smoking a Pipe, 1656?
Michaelina Wautier, Painter
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
30 September 2025 – 22 February 2026
The Klesch Collection was delighted to include the Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini and Young Man Smoking a Pipe in the exhibition ‘Michaelina Wautier, Painter’, a major celebration of one of the seventeenth century’s most fascinating artists. This dual-venue exhibition was on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna from 30 September 2026 and will be hosted at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from March 2026.
Seven years after the groundbreaking retrospective in Antwerp which put Wautier on the map, this exhibition brought together nearly the entirety of her known oeuvre, including many works newly attributed to her since 2018. A favourite of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and one of the most sought-after portraitists in Brussels, Michaelina enjoyed huge success in her own day. Her reputation placed her on par with some of her greatest contemporaries, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Defying societal conventions, she gained recognition for her ambitious history paintings at a time when women artists were largely confined to still lifes or genre scenes. This exhibition offers the opportunity to explore her distinct artistic voice and rare female perspective on both traditional and innovative pictorial subjects.
Likely commissioned by the Archduke, the Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini ranks among Wautier’s most impressive likenesses. In the exhibition, the portrait occupied a central position and was placed alongside traditional Chinese robes, hats and a copy of Martini’s Novus Atlas Sinesis (1655), the first European atlas of China. Young Man Smoking a Pipe exemplifies Wautier’s free and open brushwork, here applied to genre painting. The subject invites interpretation as an allegory of the sense of smell and was shown in dialogue with a surviving complete cycle of the five senses.
Michaelina Wautier, Portrait of the Jesuit Martino Martini, 1654
Michaelina Wautier, Young Man Smoking a Pipe, 1656?