Attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino (1591-1666)

Saint Peter with his keys and a book
numbered in pencil '39' (lower left)
inscribed in later hand 'From Gainsborough Collection / Guercino Saint with a Book' (to the mount)
pen and brown ink on paper
13 x 18.5cm

Provenance:
By repute acquired from the artist's collection, Casa Gennari, Bologna;
According to a later inscription, The Earls of Gainsborough Collection;
Private Collection, London

The pose of Saint Peter in the present lot appears to be based on that of God the Father with winged angel supporting the globe which Guercino painted in 1620 and which is now in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa. The head of the present figure also closely resembles, in reverse, that of Saint Joseph in the pen and ink drawing, The Holy Family with Saints John the Baptist and Anne (see Denis Mahon and Nicholas Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, 1989, cat. no. 15) which can be dated from an engraving by G B Pasqualini after this subject to circa 1621.

The number '39' in the lower left corner might possibly relate to the numbers which were applied to drawings originating from the John Bouverie Collection at the instruction of the 1st Earl of Gainsborough.