Giovanni Francesco Barbieri GUERCINO

The Guercino scholar David Stone has dated this drawing to the decade of the 1640s. As he has written, the present sheet ‘represents [Saint] Augustine in his study with a bookcase (one of the volumes is clearly inscribed De Trinitate, one of Augustine’s most famous works). Here he is shown standing (with the crozier resting on his chest), reading a book, and facing towards the left. A small desk on the right features an ink well with a quill.’ Although unconnected to any known painting or print by the artist, this fine drawing may be associated with another red chalk drawing of the same subject today in the collection of the Real Accademia des Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. The Madrid drawing depicts Saint Augustine kneeling in front of a bookshelf in a study, facing to the right and reading a book held up by a standing winged putto. Stone has further suggested that both the present sheet and that in Madrid may have been intended as studies for an altarpiece or easel painting of Saint Augustine in his study, although no such work survives or is recorded.

Thematically related to the present sheet is a highly finished pen and ink drawing of a Seated Bishop Saint Reading, of the same approximate date, that was recently on the art market. Likewise unrelated to any known painting, Stone has suggested that the drawing may depict Saint Ambrose, the teacher of Saint Augustine and, like him, one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church. Unlike the two red chalk drawings of Saint Augustine, however, the pen and ink drawing is of horizontal format and is unlikely to have been a study for an altarpiece, although it may have been intended for a print or book illustration.

The present sheet bears the stamp of Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1861), an influential Milanese dealer in prints, drawings, books, paintings and sculpture. Vallardi, who was also a print publisher, pioneered the practice of issuing catalogues of works for sale, and often added a stock code or numbering in red chalk on the versos of the drawings that he offered for sale, as is the case with this sheet. A large number of Italian drawings bearing Vallardi’s stamp, including the present sheet, were acquired by the 19th century Milanese collector Captain Carlo Prayer (1826-1900), who later sold part of his large collection of drawings to the dealer H. G. Gutekunst of Stuttgart.