Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)

This finished head study is typical of the types of drawings Guercino made towards the end of the preparatory process, when most of the compositional issues had been solved. This drawing, which is stylistically consistent with other works from the mid-1630s, cannot be definitively linked to a painting by Guercino, although in 1635 he was commissioned to execute two paintings of Saint Joseph with the Christ Child (neither of which has survived).
Guercino tended to repeat the same physiognomies when representing religious figures or saints in different compositions. In the case of Joseph, Guercino depicts him with a high forehead, mostly bald and with a full beard.
We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution of this drawing and his assistance cataloguing this lot.