Ink on paper. Featuring sketch of a portrait, angel. Signed Guercino on the lower right corner. Inscribed in pencil on the lower right corner, verso 1600. Attributed to Geurcino (1591-1666, Italian). 25 x 18.5 cm (9.8 x 7.3 inches). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Guercino (1591-1666) was an Italian Baroque painter famed for his imaginative use of allegorical and religious themes. Best known for his prolific execution of large commissions, he employed a free-flowing, calligraphic-quality drawing style filled with idiosyncratic marks. Born Giovanni Fracesco Barbieri on February 8, 1591 in Cento, Italy, he was nicknamed Guercino—which translates to “squinter”—early on for being cross-eyed. Guercino went on to study under Benedetto Gennari the Elder, moving to Bologna in 1615 where he gained respect from older artist Ludovico Carracci and members of the clergy. He then moved to Rome in 1621, where he gained Pope Gregory XV as a patron and painted several altars and ceilings throughout the Vatican and Rome. After the Pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned to Bologna, where he continued making his own paintings and completing commissions for local clergy members. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Louvre Museum in Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among others. Guercino died on December 22, 1666 in Bologna, Italy.

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