Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino
34. Head of a Bearded Man Wearing a Turban, c. 1650
Iron gall ink on laid paper, mounted on laid paper
20.7 x 16cm
12485 C
$ 65,000
According to Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes, Supplement (1956), p. 388: “Le premier Lord Milford, Richard Philipps, Lord Lieutenant of Pembroke de 1781 à 1823,...
According to Frits Lugt, Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d’Estampes, Supplement (1956), p. 388: “Le premier Lord Milford, Richard Philipps, Lord Lieutenant of Pembroke de 1781 à 1823, qui fit ses études à Oxford, herita de la collection de dessins formée vers 1730 par son aïeul Erasmus Philipps. Il semble que la plupart de ces feuilles provenaient d’une ancienne collection italienne; peu portant des marques de collections anglaises, comme Lankrink par exemple. L’ensemble comprenait des dessins flamands, hollandais et italiens, donc plusieurs de très belle qualité. La collection resta dans la famille Philipps jusqu’en 1943. Une première partie fut alors vendue par Sir John Philipps (mort en 1949) au marchand H. M. Calmann de Londres, une seconde partie au même en 1946…
“VENTE: 1950, 13 décembre, Londres (chez Sotheby). Dessins attribués à Annibale Carrache, le Guerchin, G. B. Tiepolo, P. L. Ghezzi, Potter et Rembrandt. Les meilleurs dessins avaient été vendus à l’amiable.”
The drawing is subject of a letter written to the previous owner by Nicholas Turner (1), in which he writes: “(the drawing) is by Guercino and is probably datable c. 1650, on stylistic grounds. I think Andrew Robison (2) is right to suggest it was made as a finished study for a head to appear in one of Guercino’s paintings… indicating that it would have been made comparatively late in the preparatory process for such a painting….”
Looking through the catalogue raisonné of Guercino’s paintings (L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988), there are very few instances of the appearance of such male heads wearing turbans in his work of around 1650. Of these, perhaps the closest in general character… is one of the elders in Guercino’s Susannah and the Elders in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma, painted in 1649–1650… A possible but less likely alternative is that it was made as a study in reverse for the turbaned pharisee in the Tribute Money in the palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini, Genoa, which Guercino painted in 1654.”
The picture has also been seen in photograph by Professor David Stone of the University of Delaware, who endorses it as the work of Guercino (3).
(1) Nicholas Turner, an independent art historian, was formerly Deputy Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, London, and Curator of Drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. His publications include Drawings by Guercino; Florentine Drawings; and The Study of Italian Drawings. He was most recently a contributor to the exhibition catalogue for the Pinacoteca Civica, Cento, and Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, exhibition (2005–2006), Guercino as Master Draughtsman. Drawings from the Mahon Collection, The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the City of Cento Pinacoteca Civica di Cento.
(2) Andrew Robison is Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
(3) A leading international authority on the Bolognese artist Guercino, Professor David Stone organized Guercino, Master Draftsman. Works from North American Collections, an exhibition which traveled to the Harvard University Art Museums, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1991. He also wrote the accompanying catalogue (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991). In the same year he published Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti (Florence, Cantini Editore, 1991), a complete catalogue of the artist’s paintings. While consultant to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., for their 1992 Guercino exhibition, Professor Stone organized and chaired “Guercino: Nature and Idea. A Quadricentennial Symposium.” Sponsored by the National Gallery, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware, the two-day symposium was accompanied by an exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum which he curated: Mostly Baroque: Italian Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Carlo Croce.
“VENTE: 1950, 13 décembre, Londres (chez Sotheby). Dessins attribués à Annibale Carrache, le Guerchin, G. B. Tiepolo, P. L. Ghezzi, Potter et Rembrandt. Les meilleurs dessins avaient été vendus à l’amiable.”
The drawing is subject of a letter written to the previous owner by Nicholas Turner (1), in which he writes: “(the drawing) is by Guercino and is probably datable c. 1650, on stylistic grounds. I think Andrew Robison (2) is right to suggest it was made as a finished study for a head to appear in one of Guercino’s paintings… indicating that it would have been made comparatively late in the preparatory process for such a painting….”
Looking through the catalogue raisonné of Guercino’s paintings (L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988), there are very few instances of the appearance of such male heads wearing turbans in his work of around 1650. Of these, perhaps the closest in general character… is one of the elders in Guercino’s Susannah and the Elders in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma, painted in 1649–1650… A possible but less likely alternative is that it was made as a study in reverse for the turbaned pharisee in the Tribute Money in the palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini, Genoa, which Guercino painted in 1654.”
The picture has also been seen in photograph by Professor David Stone of the University of Delaware, who endorses it as the work of Guercino (3).
(1) Nicholas Turner, an independent art historian, was formerly Deputy Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, London, and Curator of Drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. His publications include Drawings by Guercino; Florentine Drawings; and The Study of Italian Drawings. He was most recently a contributor to the exhibition catalogue for the Pinacoteca Civica, Cento, and Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, exhibition (2005–2006), Guercino as Master Draughtsman. Drawings from the Mahon Collection, The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the City of Cento Pinacoteca Civica di Cento.
(2) Andrew Robison is Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
(3) A leading international authority on the Bolognese artist Guercino, Professor David Stone organized Guercino, Master Draftsman. Works from North American Collections, an exhibition which traveled to the Harvard University Art Museums, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1991. He also wrote the accompanying catalogue (Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1991). In the same year he published Guercino: catalogo completo dei dipinti (Florence, Cantini Editore, 1991), a complete catalogue of the artist’s paintings. While consultant to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., for their 1992 Guercino exhibition, Professor Stone organized and chaired “Guercino: Nature and Idea. A Quadricentennial Symposium.” Sponsored by the National Gallery, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Department of Art History at the University of Delaware, the two-day symposium was accompanied by an exhibition at the Delaware Art Museum which he curated: Mostly Baroque: Italian Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Carlo Croce.
Provenance
(Probably) Sir Erasmus Philipps (1699–1743), circa 1730; and by descent to his grandson,
Richard Philipps, 1st Baron Milford (1744–1823), of Picton Castle, Haverfordwest; his bookplate mounted on the backing (Lugt 2687)
Sir Henry Erasmus Edward Philipps (1871–1938), 2nd Baronet, of Picton Castle, Haverfordwest; and by descent to his daughter,
Sheila Plunkett, Lady Dunsany (1912–1999), until the late 1950s, by whom gifted to
Seton Hedley Dearden (d. 1989), from the late 1950s until 1989
Bridget Dearden (1910–2010), his widow, from 1989 until 2006
Private collection, London, UK
