Giovanni Francesco Barbieri

The young woman with a turban looking up from the piece of paper she holds in her hand appears lost in thought, as if reflecting on what she has just read; a book lies next to her on the table. The light entering from the left warmly illuminates the scene. Nicholas Turner has assigned Guercino’s fascinating depiction to a group of drawings the master produced for teaching purposes. Like the present drawing these are in a fairly large format, which is unusual for Guercino. In the nude drawing school he founded in Cento in 1616 Guercino used male nude studies, mostly executed in oiled charcoal, to teach his students. In compositional respects the Woman with the Turban is similar to models for illustrations in drawing manuals of the kind that Oliviero Gatti engraved in copper. Turner sees the framing line in pen and brown ink, which Guercino seldom used for character studies, as a further indication that this work served as a visual teaching aid for his pupils. It is an exemplary instance of the warm and intensive chiaroscuro that was considered a typical feature of the Bolognese artist’s paintings and drawings. While the application of the chalk is lighter in most of Guercino’s smaller studies, the bold, partially opaque technique used in the present sheet, which Turner dates to around 1625–30, is also to be found in a number of earlier genre scenes such as the Two Women at a Table in Oxford (Ashmolean Museum, inv. no. KTP 864) and Boy Resting his Head on his Hand in Kent (Folkestone Museum). From the collection of Christian David Ginsburg, London (Lugt 1145). A copy can be provided of the written expertise issued by Nicholas Turner on 14 December 2023.

EUR 48,000