(Cento 1591-1666 Bologna) A study of a young woman with a wine glass and a carafe, red chalk on laid paper, 15,8 x 13 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Auction sale Bonham's, London, 23rd April 2008, lot 239; private collection, France.

Literature:
The drawing is published in: N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A Revised and Expanded Catalogue Raisonné, Rome 2017, p. 296, No 396. For the painting "Lot and His Daughters" in the Louvre see also: L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome 1988, p. 354, No 284.

The attribution of the drawing to Guercino was confirmed by Nicholas Turner in a certificate of 15th January 2008 and in a written communication of July 25th, 2017.

The present drawing is presumably a preliminary study for the female figure at the left of the painting "Lot and His Daughters" (1651) in the Louvre in Paris (Salerno 1988, No 284; Turner 2017, No 396). Whereas the figure in the painting is seated with her arms crossed in front of her chest and is observing how her daughter is providing her father with wine out of a straw-coated carafe, the latter figure is represented with a wineglass and a carafe in the drawing. Even the lightsources in the painting and in the drawing are different: Contrary to the painting the light comes from the left side in the drawing; the inclination angle of the heads and the facial features of the women are, however, not unlike. In an earlier version of the painting which is preserved in the Gemäldegalerie Dresden today and which was executed in 1650, the posture and the physiognomy of the woman with the one in the present sheet are comparable. In total Guercino executed three paintings of the subject for various patrons. (Salerno 1988, No 275; No 284; No 296). They share the large formats and the full-length figures. Surprisingly no designs have been identified for either one of the paintings; Guercino may have prepared the paintings with figure studies which may have been executed then in the paintings with considerable alterations. The painting in the Louvre is the only version where one of the daughters is represented with a bare chest. The present drawing may therefore have prepared the Louvre composition. Dr. Nicholas Turner suggests a dating of 1650 for the sheet based on stylistic evidence.