Saint Joseph with the Christ Child Holding a Bird

From very early in Guercino’s career, his drawings were recognized and sought as exceptional works in themselves. Responding to this demand, Guercino collaborated with printmakers to produce reproductions of certain drawings. Often repertory in their approach to subjects, carefully developed and finished but retaining an unmistakable graphic personality, drawings so intended represent a distinct mode of the artist’s style. This is an outstanding example of this mode, similar to a drawing at Windsor Castle that was engraved in 1621, although ap-parently not itself translated into a print.