WHAT? Michaelina Wautier

WHERE? The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London W1J 0BD

WHEN? Now until 21st June

WHY GO? For a mission of discovery. You may not instantly recognise her name since Michaelina Wautier has just recently been re-discovered as the intrepid artist that she was and a wonderful new exhibition celebrates her achievements.
She dared to paint, The Triumph of Bacchus, (1655) a monumental canvas depicting naked men including herself barely clad at a time when no one could imagine a woman capable of being that audacious.
Though that is undoubtedly the showpiece of this small exhibition, a series of cheeky portraits capturing five boys representing the senses, Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste and Touch steal the show and have a touch of irony most women will immediately relate to even though they are years apart.
Wautier's one and only striking self portrait has a hidden agenda, it defines her as a noble woman in fine clothes yet says she’s an artist with brush and palette in her hand.
Art historians are in a quandary as to what she meant by this depiction which only begs for visitors to dig deeper into the history of this extraordinary female trailblazer that surely rivals the other, her contemporary artist Artemisia Gentileschi for posterity.

IN THE KNOW Little is recorded of Michaelina Wautier’s background, other than that she was born in 1641 in Mons in Belgium. Her father died when she was an infant followed by her mother soon after and she was nurtured by her older artist brother Charles, who most likely tutored her. Neither married and both lived for their art. What a movie that would make!