Study for Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (recto); Sketches: Saint Christopher; Two Figures in Conversation over Money (verso)
Guercino (Italian, 1591-1666)
c. 1620
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, with brush and gray and brown wash (recto) and pen and brown ink and graphite (verso), on cream laid paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 18.1 × 24.5 cm (7 3/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This is the earliest known study for a commission that Guercino was given in 1620 by Cardinal Jacopo Serra, Legate of Ferrara. The forceful, naturalistic drawing captures the moment of the Old Testament story in which Joseph attempts to guide the blessing arm of the nearly blind Jacob away from his younger son Ephraim to the head of his first-born, Manasse.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
