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

This delicate head study is datable to the 1640s, as proposed by Nicholas Turner who tentatively connects it to the boy in profile in Guercino's Prodigal Son, a recently rediscovered painting (M. Borchia, 'Dipinti come doni diplomatici [...]' Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, 17/18, 2015-16, pp. 133-9, ill.). We thank Nicholas Turner for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution based on a digital photograph.