This drawing is one of a group of related studies for a lost painting of The Vision of Saint Clare of circa 1618, known through a copy in the Pinacoteca Manfrediana, Venice. The group of studies relating to this composition have most recently been discussed by Andrew C. Blume. The drawings reveal a considerable freedom over details of subject matter. In the Mahon drawing Saint Francis receives the Christ Child with Saint Clare below, A. Blume, fig. 3. Studies at Hartford, formerly Witt collecion and in the Uffizi (A. Blume, pl. 21, figs. 6 and 4 respectively) concentrate on the Virgin and Child with a kneeling Saint, possibly Saint Anthony or Francis. Guercino may still have intended to have included Saint Clare. The present drawing, by contrast, is a study for the whole composition and is probably the last of the series. The study is the only one of the series to include two angels flanking the Virgin, and a tree at the upper left to suggest a landscape setting. In the drawing, as in the ex-Witt sheet, the Christ Child in the Saint's arms twists back to look to his mother for reassurance. At a still later stage, Francis was supplanted by Saint Clare, as may be seen in a drawing in Berlin (A. Blume, fig. 8) as well as the lost picture.

One further drawing, unknown to Blume, was engraved in 1829 when in the collection of Vivant-Denon. The lost picture is closest in composition to the drawing formerly in the Vivant-Denon Collection