Saint Francis contemplating at a crucifix

Throughout his career Guercino produced drawings in black chalk, often on heavy coarse paper. The technique allowed the artist to create a granular effect, giving these drawings their chiaroscuro quality also notable in the artist's paintings. Nicholas Turner has suggested that the present drawing could have been made in connection with a now lost altarpiece, commissioned in 1651 by Guercino's friend - the writer on art - Francesco Scannelli (1616-1663) (B. Ghelfi, Il Libro dei Conti del Guercino 1629-1666, Bologna, 1997, pp. 154-5, no. 448). In his mature period Guercino's painted 5 altarpieces of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, and the altarpiece commissioned by Scannelli appears to be the only one in which Saint Francis kneels outside a cave in prayer. Malvasia says the altarpiece was destined for Forli, a claim substantiated by a note written by Guercino himself. Yet, no painting by Guercino that fits the description is known to have been in Forli.

A drawing in red chalk of the same subject is in the British Museum (Inv. Ff 2-129; N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, op. cit., App. no. 42) and another is in the collection of the former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for his assistance in cataloguing this drawing and for confirming the attribution to Guercino on the basis of examination of the drawing in person.