Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, 
Italian 1591-1666- 
Ecce Homo; 
pen, brown ink,...

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino, 
Italian 1591-1666- 

Ecce Homo; 

pen, brown ink, and wash on paper, bears inscription 'guerchino' (lower left), bears traces of a collector's stamp (lower right), 9.5 x 13.6 cm. 

Provenance: 
Anon. sale, Christie's, New York, 4-5 April 2007, lot 7 (part lot, as 'Manner of Guercino'). 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
This drawing is likely one of a number of preparatory studies made by Guercino for his painting 'Christ Crowned with Thorns', also known as 'Ecce Homo', commissioned by Marchese Tanari, and in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich [229]. 

Indeed, the drawing appears to foremostly relate to 'an important 'Ecce Homo' image designed by Guercino in 1629/30 that was clearly a important reference point for the Tanari commission drawings completed some seventeen years later. The work in question is an illustrated title page, dedicated to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, conceived by Guercino (the original drawing is lost) and engraved by Jerome David for a volume written by the painter's great discoverer, mentor, and patron Padre Antonio Mirandola (1573-1648)' [see British Museum U,4.96] (Suzanne Folds McCullagh, ed., 'Strokes of Genius: Italian Drawings from the Goldman Collection', Yale University Press, 2014, p.150). 

The present work has been identified by Professor Stone, in discussion with Louise Rice, as a 'drawing in reverse of the printed composition [mentioned above] (pen and brown ink) - and thus possibly reflecting a lost preparatory sheet by Guercino for David's title page'. (Suzanne Folds McCullagh, ed., 'Strokes of Genius: Italian Drawings from the Goldman Collection', Yale University Press, 2014, p.186).