Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

St. Jerome Weeping over a Skull

Guercino
1591-1666

St. Jerome Weeping over a Skull

ca. 1640
10 3/8 x 8 7/16 inches (264 x 214 mm)
Red chalk on laid paper.
2009.159

The Joseph F. McCrindle Collection.

Notes
The style and handling of this sheet are typical of Guercino's studies in red chalk from the late 1630s or early 1640s. Although the penitent St. Jerome occurs repeatedly throughout the artist's oeuvre, no directly related painting by Guercino is known. Guercino executed several canvases with the weeping St. Peter in 1639-40, as well as various half-length paintings of St. Jerome, but the scale and finish of this drawing, akin to that of the Virgin and Child with a book and a pot of pinks (IV, 168g), suggest that it was, like that sheet, perhaps an independent graphic exercise. The drawing is close in conception to the paintings of Guercino's contemporary and compatriot Guido Reni, and it was once erroneously but not unreasonably attributed to that Bolognese painter, as indicated by the inscription at the lower left. -- Catalog entry: Guercino : virtuoso draftsman, Morgan Library & Museum, 2019, p. 86
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed at lower left, in red chalk, "Guido".
Associated names
McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.
Bibliography
Marciari, John. Guercino : virtuoso draftsman. New York : Morgan Library & Museum, in association with Paul Holberton Publishing, 2019, no. 24, repr.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department