Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino

Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b) 

Slight discolouration around the border where an old mount discoloured the edges of the drawing. At some point the surface was possibly slightly and gently cleaned. The ink has not damaged the paper and the appearence of the wash and ink is very strong. A few small light brown spots scattered around: two over the violin and over the right knee of the saint and below his left elbow. At the centre over the right arm of St Francis, a paper defect is slightly detectable. Generally in good condition. Sold in a a modern 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.

We are indebted to Nicholas Turner who, having seen the drawing in the original, has endorsed the attribution to Guercino and provided the following information.  He suggests a date around 1640 and points out the rarity of such drawings in which the use of brush and wash predominates over pen and ink.  Turner compares the present work to the Landscape with a Volcano in the Morgan Library, New York,¹ which he describes as 'an equally fluid and luminous study...which is almost exclusively in brush and wash and, unusually, on light blue paper'.  He stresses that although Guercino is looking back to a very early work, The Vision of St. Francis, datable about 1623, now in Dresden,² the present study could relate to a different painting representing St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (fig.1), commissioned in 1641 by Padre Giovan Battista d'Este (briefly Duke of Modena, abdicated in 1629).³  The picture, for which final payments were received in 1643, is now in the Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum, Mainz.  Although the Mainz painting is an upright composition, Turner suggests that the present sheet is an early idea for this work, noting in particular the very similar positioning of the arms of St. Francis.  His proposal is supported by the similarity in style with a number of other sheets by Guercino associated with the Mainz painting, which include studies in the Courtauld Institute, London,⁴ in the Louvre, Paris,⁵ formerly in the collection of Jak Katalan,⁶ and formerly in the collection of Rudolf and Margot Wittkower.⁷

Turner points out that the closest of all is the one formerly in the Katalan collection and writes: ' Both of them share the same intensity of chiaroscuro, as well as the sharp silhouetting of a number of the landscape elements. They are also united by nearly identical stylistic idiosyncrasies, notably a fast-moving and rhythmical touch, always of extraordinary sensitivity, whether in pen or in brush and wash, or a clever, perfectly balanced union of the two.' 

1. Inv. no. 1975.36; see David M. Stone, Guercino Master Draftsman, Works From North American Collections, exhib. cat., Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums, et al., 1991, pp. 170-71, no. 74, reproduced
2. Luigi Salerno, I Dipinti del Guercino, Rome 1988, p. 180, no. 98, reproduced. A number of autograph versions of the Dresden picture are known: see Sir Denis Mahon in La Grazia dell'Arte, Collezione Grimaldi Fava, Dipinti e disegni, Milan 2009, pp. 186-87, reproduced 
3. Salerno, op. cit., p. 282, no. 201, reproduced
4. Inv. no. D. 1952.R.W.1369; see Julian Brooks, Guercino, Mind to Paper, exhib. cat., Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006, pp. 84-5, no. 29, reproduced
5. Inv.no. 6881; see Stéphane Loire, Le Guerchin en France, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1990, p. 103, no. 41, reproduced
6. James Mundy, The Katalan Collection of Italian Drawings, exhib. cat., Poughkeepsie, Vassar College, 1995-96, pp. 98-99, no. 42, reproduced; sold, London, Sotheby's, Italian Drawings from the Collection of Jak Katalan, 10 July 2002, lot 63, reproduced
7. Sold, New York , Christie's, 10 January 1996, lot 315, reproduced