Esther Fainting into the Arms of Two Attendants
- recto
A Right Arm, The Hand Holding a Fine Stick
- verso

Pen and brown ink.

252 x 192 mm
(9 ⁹/10 x 7 ³/5 inches)

Literature: David Stone, review of N. Turner and C. Plazzotta, Drawings by Guercino from British Collections, exh. cat., London, British Museum, 1991, in The Burlington Magazine, September 1991, pp. 633-634, figs. 78-79.

GIOVANNI FRANCESCO BARBIERI
called IL GUERCINO
Cento 1591 ~ 1666 Bologna

The studies on both sides of our sheet are preparatory for Guercino's painting of Esther Before Ahasuerus, commissioned circa 1637 by Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti, Bishop of Ferrara.¹ On the death of Cardinal Magalotti, the still-unfinished painting was left to Cardinal Antonio Barberini who passed it on to his brother, Pope Urban VIII. The painting was eventually bought by Camuccini and sold to the Duke of Northumberland. In 1963 it was bought by the Museum of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.²

Eight other preparatory studies for this painting are known. The most complete study for the whole composition is in the Royal Collection at Windsor³ which was engraved by Bartolozzi. The University of Michigan has a study of the three central figures and another such study was bought at Christies in January, 2001.⁴ There is a drawing of Esther and Ahasuerus in a private collection and the Arkansas Arts Center has a study for Ahasuerus on his own. Others are Ahasuerus alone (in a private collection,⁵ two men in turbans (unpublished)⁶ and finally, a less well-defined sketch of Esther and her handmaid, less close to the composition, is at Christ Church, Oxford.⁷

Our drawing reveals Guercino's final decision on the gestures of the women (recto) and the placement of the sceptre of Ahasuerus (verso).⁸ According to Nicholas Turner, the provenance of our drawing is possibly that of a large group of drawings bought by John Bouverie from the Gennari family which passed by descent to his nephew, Christopher Hervey; then by descent to the 1st Earl of Gainsborough; the 3rd Earl of Gainsborough; his sale, London, Christies, 27 July 1922; there acquired by E. Parsons and Sons and sold to Dan Fellows Platt.⁹

1. It was registered in the libro dei conti on 12 July 1639 (Guercino's household account book).

2. Cf. D. Stone, Guercino, Cittadella, 1991, p.101, fig. 40a.

3. D. Mahon & N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino....at Windsor Castle, Cambridge,1989, cat. 356.

4. Christie's, New York, 24 January, 2001, lot no. 38.

5. Cf. D. Stone, loc. cit. p. 101, fig. 40c.

6. This drawing is in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. It was presented in Ellen A. Palmer, In Focus: Guercino's Esther, exh.cat. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1993, p.6, fig.4.

7. James Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford, Oxford 1976, cat. 997, pl.603.

8. D. Stone, The Burl. Mag., 1991, op.cit. pp.633-634, fig.79.

9. Sotheby's sale cat., New York, 23 January, 2001, lot 179.