This and the following study are examples of Guercino's genre drawings, which the artist seems to have done for his own pleasure no doubt inspired by the studies of peasants and of scenes from everyday life by Annibale Carracci. The tradition of representing peasant life, in a sympathetic although often satirical manner, was one introduced to Italy by German and Netherlandish prints in the 16th Century. Bolognese artists in particular developed the theme, due largely to the naturalistic tradition established by the Carracci which was continued by artists such as Giuseppe Maria Crespi into the 18th Century . Guercino is described by Malvasia as an 'amatore de poveri', and this is reflected in the drawings which present a sympathetic, although at the same time an often brutally candid, representation of peasant life in the rural backwater of Cento where, despite tempting offers to leave, he remained until moving to Bologna after the death of Reni in 1642. The present drawing is drawn in one of the artist's favored techniques: oiled black chalk on colored paper. A study also from the Bouverie Collection of similar subject, size, technique and with an inscription 'Guer^o L[7?]45' on the verso is in the Janos Scholz Collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, D.M. Stone, Guercino, Master Draftsman, Works from North American Collections, exhib. cat., Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 1991, no. 77, illustrated in color