6596 - Guercino

Guercino Woman in a Turban Seated at a Table. Red chalk on handmade paper. 26.2 x 35.9 cm. Circa 1625–1630. The young woman wearing a turban looks up from a document, lost in thought, and appears to be reflecting on what she has read; a book lies beside her. Warm light streaming in from the left illuminates the scene. Nicholas Turner classified Guercino’s captivating depiction as part of a group of drawings the master created for teaching purposes. Like our drawing, these are characterized by a larger format that was otherwise unusual for Guercino. At his school for figure drawing in Cento, founded in 1616, Guercino instructed his students using male nude studies, which he mostly executed in oiled charcoal. Compositionally, the woman with the turban closely resembles models for the plates in drawing manuals, such as those engraved in copper by Oliviero Gatti. The brown pen outline—otherwise unusual in Guercino’s figure studies—is seen by Turner as further evidence that this is a visual teaching aid for his students. It exemplifies the warm and intense chiaroscuro that was considered a hallmark of the Bolognese artist’s painting and drawing. While the application of chalk is lighter in most of Guercino’s smaller studies, the bold, at times opaque technique of our sheet—which Turner dates to around 1625–1630—also appears in some earlier genre scenes, such as in *Two Women at a Table* in Oxford (Ashmolean Museum, Inv. No. KTP 864) and in *Young Man Resting His Head in His Hand* in Kent (Folkestone Museum). A copy of the detailed expert report by Nicholas Turner dated December 14, 2023, is available. Provenance: From the collection of Christian David Ginsburg, London (Lugt 1145). - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.