The Extraordinary Art and Life of Michelina Wautier

For this year’s annual Mary Strauss Women in the Arts Lecture, art historian Betsy Wieseman will focus on the scholarly sleuthing that has—at long last—returned Michelina Wautier’s creations to their rightful author.

Active in the court city of Brussels, Wautier (1604–1689) was an artist of exceptional versatility, producing portraits, genre scenes, allegories, and still lifes as well as religious and mythological scenes. Paradoxically, her command of a broad stylistic and thematic range resulted over time in many of her paintings being attributed to various other (male) artists. Only in this century have art historians begun to fully appreciate Wautier’s audacious talent.

Wieseman is curator and head of the department of Northern European paintings at the National Gallery of Art. An expert in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting, Wieseman holds a doctorate from Columbia University.

This program is supported by the Mary Strauss Women in the Arts Endowment.