Sir Denis Mahon has kindly confirmed the attribution and suggests that this is a study for the Madonna of the Rosary with Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena in San Marco, Osima, L. Salerno, I Dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, no. 202, illustrated. The painting was commissioned in memory of Cardinal Agostino Galaminia, Bishop of Osima in 1640 and the final payment is recorded in 1643: for the fullest account of the commission, see D. Mahon, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino 1591-1666, Bologna, 1991, no. 86. Preparatory studies for the picture are at Windsor (D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1989, no. 98, pl. 103) and Haarlem (C. van Tuyll Serooskerken, Guercino (1591-1666), Drawings from Dutch Collections, Haarlem, 1991, no. 41, illustrated): drawings of putti were sold at Sotheby's, 22 July 1949, lot 1 and 21 November 1974, lot 55, illustrated. The present drawing appears to be an early preparatory study, like the Windsor sheet, before the inclusion of the Christ Child on the Madonna's knee