red chalk, pen, brown ink on paper, hinged to an 18th c. lined mount
4 3/4 x 3 7/8 inches
numbered 67 in an old hand, thought to be an 18th c. inventory number

frame diameter: 11 3/4 inches

Additional provenance from the the invoice of Mia Weiner, “Professor David Stone has confirmed an early dating of this charming drawing to between 1625-30, a few years after the artist’s return to Cento from Rome. Professor Stone points to the treatment of the hair and the physiognomy and handling of the female figure as typical for this period. Also characteristic are the series of parallel lines used by the artist to obfiscate pentimenti, the treatment of the eyes with the linear upswing at the outer corner, and Guercino’s oft depicted appreciation of this particular line of the human back.

Though Guercino drew prolifically and frequently from life for the sheer pleasure of it, it is possible this work may be a study for a painted figure of Susannah. Guercino painted two versions of Susannah and the Elders. One of these, commissioned in 1649, is presently in Parma and is not related; the other, known to Malvasia, is now lost (and thus undateable). Several drawings of the subject are extant, one at Windsor, the other at the Teylers Museum.”