Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino

Casa Gennari;
Probably Francesco Forni;
John Bouverie (with the so called 'Casa Gennari mount', L.2858c, and black chalk inventory number lower left, 51, associated with his collection);
by inheritance to his sister Anne Bouverie and his brother-in-law John Hervey,
by descent to his son Christopher Hervey, at his death in 1786,
by inheritance to his aunt Elizabeth Bouverie,
by bequest to Sir Charles Middleton, later 1st Baron Barham,
Sir Gerard Noel, father of the 1st Earl of Gainsborough,
by descent to Charles Noel, 3rd Earl of Gainsborough,
his sale and others, London, Christie's, 27 July 1922, lot 81, (purchased by Meatyard for  Sir Robert Witt);
Sir Robert Witt,
by inheritance to his son Sir John Witt (L. 646a); 
sale, London, Christie's, 9 December 1980, lot 60;
European Private Collection

Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, 1591-1666, I Disegni (catalogue by Sir Denis Mahon), 1992, p. 264, no. 167, reproduced p. 265, fig. 167

London, Courtauld Institute, The John Witt Collection, Part I, European Schools, 1963, p. 10, n. 23, not reproduced;
P. Bagni, Guercino a Cento. Le decorazioni di Casa Pannini, Bologna 1984, reproduced p. 194, fig. 156;
D. Stone, Guercino, Master Draftsman, exh. cat., Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, and Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991, p. 116, under no. 67

Overall in very good condition. Attached at each corner to the old mount. A tiny loss at the top left end corner and two pin point losses to the right eye and below of the bather getting undressed. The point of the right corner missing. A tiny little beige spot over the numbering 51. Media very fresh and strong. Sold mounted and framed in a modern gilded frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This wonderful, fresh drawing by Guercino, showing a young man under the natural shelter of several bare tree trunks, getting undressed to swim in a river with a friend, is one of the artist’s fascinating genre scenes.  Like many of his subjects of this type, it may well have been drawn from life. It is in these depictions of everyday life, and also in his caricatures (see lot 126), that Guercino’s subtle sense of humour and acute observation is most apparent. 

The confident execution and the bold treatment in the use of the pen and ink can be closely compared to another genre study in the same media, A kneeling youth wearing a tall hat with a feather, formerly in the collection of Sir Denis Mahon, and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.¹  Characterized by very similar parallel strokes and clear areas of light and shadow, the ex-Mahon drawing has been dated by Nicholas Turner and Carol Plazzotta to the mid-1640s, on the basis of stylistic comparison with three other pen and ink drawings by the artist in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, which include a preparatory study for Guercino’s 1646 painting of The Circumcision, executed for the church of Gesù e Maria, Bologna.² Prisco Bagni, in his book on the decoration of Casa Pannini (see Literature), reproduced this drawing to illustrate Guercino’s continuing interest in the subject of bathers, which the young artist first treated in these very early frescoes, executed in 1615-16 (fig. 1).  Guercino also included bathers in two pen and ink landscapes, in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.³  A further study, also very comparable, showing a seated man in a landscape, taking off his shirt, has been dated by David Stone to the 1630s or early ‘40s,⁴ but he locates the present drawing rather earlier, circa 1623-30 (see Literature). 

The provenance of this exceptional drawing can be traced back continuously from the present day to the heirs of Guercino himself.  The sheet was purchased in Italy by John Bouverie, whose name often appears in connection with the very best of Guercino’s drawings (see also lot 124).  It still retains the highly individual mount with its surprising, bold geometric pattern, executed in pen and black ink, which is generally known as the 'Casa Gennari mount'.  In his informative article on Bouverie as a collector,⁵ Nicholas Turner has, however, convincingly argued that the impoverished heirs of Guercino could not plausibly have undertaken the elaborate mounting of all the many Guercino drawings in their possession.  Moreover, Turner noted that a drawing in the British Museum, by the Florentine artist Ciampelli, is on the same distinctive mount, and that it is highly unlikely that such a drawing would ever have been in the possession of Guercino or his heirs, suggesting therefore that it was actually Bouverie who was responsible for these unique, so-called 'Casa Gennari' mounts.⁶ 

An enthusiastic traveller, Bouverie died in Turkey in 1750, at the age of only 27, but during his short life he took full advantage of his travels to collect antiquities, paintings and most of all drawings.⁷  While making his Grand Tour, principally through Italy, at some point before 1742, Bouverie was able to acquire a large number of drawings, including an entire album of sheets by Guercino purchased from the 'Abbé Bonducci' in Florence, which came directly from the Gennari family, probably from Filippo Antonio Gennari.⁸  But given the large number of drawings by Guercino that were ultimately owned by Bouverie, he clearly also acquired more drawings by the artist when he was in Italy again in 1745-46, this time most probably from Francesco Forni.  As Prisco Bagni pointed out, Francesco seems to have been the son of Antonio Forni, the leading dealer in Old Master drawings in Bologna.⁹

This startlingly well preserved drawing, with its delightful composition and extraordinary provenance, is a perfect encapsulation of all the most accomplished and beguiling aspects of Guercino’s artistic personality.

^1. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, M & E, 42; N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, exh. cat., London, British Museum, 1991, p. 194, reproduced fig. 194 

^2. D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge 1989, p. 70, no. 124, reproduced fig. 130   

^3. Chatsworth, The Devonshire Collection, inv. no. 537, and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, inv. no. IV, 168; P. Bagni, op.cit, Bologna 1984, reproduced pp. 192-193, figs. 154-155

^4. D. Stone, op. cit., p. 223, no. 172, reproduced pl. P, fig. 172

^5. N. Turner, ‘John Bouverie as a Collector of Drawings,’ The Burlington Magazine, vol. 136, February 1994, pp. 90-99

^6. Ibid., p. 91

^7. Bouverie’s acquisitions were not limited to Italian drawings. It is not known where he bought it, but he also owned Dürer’s drawing of Christ being nailed to the Cross, to be sold from the collection of the late A. Alfred Taubman, in these Rooms, on 27 January 2016 (lot 25).

^8. Turner and Plazzotta, op. cit., p. 22

^9. P. Bagni, Il Guercino e il suo falsario, I Disegni di Figura, Bologna 1990, p. 12