Lot Essay
Sir Denis Mahon has kindly confirmed the attribution of the present drawing and pointed out the relation with the figure of Saint Paul the Hermit in Saint Augustine, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Paul the Hermit in the Church of Saint Augustine, Rome, D. M. Stone, Guercino, catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence, 1991, no. 151, illustrated. A payment of 127 scudi for the picture is mentioned in the Libro de Conti on 2 January 1637 and the last payment of 200 scudi on 7 May 1638. Malvasia describes the picture as painted in 1638.
The technique of the drawing is similar to that of a red chalk study of a young man related to the Flaying of Marsyas of 1637, D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, London, 1989, nos. 91, pl. 96.
Two further drawings are related to the figure of Saint Paul, one sold in these Rooms, 6 July 1982, lot 82, illustrated, and another in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken, Guercino (1591-1666), Drawings from Dutch Collections, exhib. cat., Teylers Museum, Haarlem, no. 38, illustrated.
The technique of the drawing is similar to that of a red chalk study of a young man related to the Flaying of Marsyas of 1637, D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, London, 1989, nos. 91, pl. 96.
Two further drawings are related to the figure of Saint Paul, one sold in these Rooms, 6 July 1982, lot 82, illustrated, and another in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken, Guercino (1591-1666), Drawings from Dutch Collections, exhib. cat., Teylers Museum, Haarlem, no. 38, illustrated.