Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino

Duke Roberto Ferretti di Castelferretto,
by whom sold, London, Christie's, 2 July 1996, lot 130; acquired at the sale

Sold mounted and framed in a modern gilded wooden frame. Hinged on four corners. The condition is excellent. The sheet is clear, and the chalk is very strong and fresh.
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The attribution to Guercino was confirmed by Sir Denis Mahon, who also noted that the drawing is related to the figure of Saint Paul the Hermit in Guercino's altarpiece, Saint Augustine, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Paul the Hermit, painted for the church of Saint Augustine, Rome.¹  Malvasia dates the pala to 1638, and indeed, the artist's Libro dei Conti (account book) mentions two payments for it: one of 127 scudi on 2^nd January 1637, and one of 200 scudi on 7^th May 1638.²

Two further drawings by Guercino are known that are connected with the painting: one is in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, executed in pen and brown ink and showing Saint Augustine and Saint Paul, while the other (sold, London, Christie's, 6 July 1982, lot 40) is in the same medium, and concentrates on the latter saint.³  Both drawings show him with his hands pressed to his chest in prayer, as in the painting, but the pose Guercino adopts for St. Paul in the Horvitz drawing (seated, with his upper body turned to the left towards Saint John) is rather closer to the final composition, suggesting that the present sheet was executed later than the other drawings.

1. See D.M. Stone, Guercino, catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1991, cat. no. 151, reproduced

2. Ibid.

3. See C. van Tuyll, Guercino (15910-1666), Drawings from Dutch Collections, The Hague 1991, pp. 104-5, cat. no. 38