Half-length study of a bearded man in a cap, seated with his elbow resting on a book

Stylistically the present drawing is datable to the mid-1640s. In theme and composition it has many similarities to a drawing in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (inv. 2597), which also shows a half-length, bearded man wearing a hat with his hands clasped under his chin (D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1989, p. 133, no. 398).
We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution to Guercino after examining the drawing and for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue note.