Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino Cento 1591 - 1666 Bologna

Bears unidentified collector's dry stamp lower right : JF

Guercino here records, with his quite pronounced sense of humor and observation, an event of everyday life: a man seated on a box holding a cane with which he hopes to teach a small dog to jump or do tricks.  Looking at his many caricatures and witty representations of people and genre scenes, one understands that Guercino must have enjoyed capturing these moments in quick, spontaneous studies.  Often quite amusing and offering an interesting record of his time, they reveal another dimension of the artist's personality as well as another strand of his work.  Obviously these drawings from life were done for his own enjoyment and that of the people around him.