Female Head Study Looking Up to Right (recto); Study of Two Figures Supporting an Object (verso)

School of Guido Reni · 1630/70

Medium

Black chalk, heightened with traces of white chalk (recto), and black chalk (verso) on tan laid paper

Original size

20 × 15.3 cm (7 7/8 × 6 1/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

This delicate chalk study captures the hallmark grace of the Guido Reni circle — a female head tilted upward with an expression of quiet reverence, rendered with the kind of searching sensitivity that only preparatory draughtsmanship tends to reveal. Guido Reni dominated Bolognese painting in the early seventeenth century, and his workshop and followers absorbed his signature idealism: softly modelled forms, serene upward gazes, and a lyrical refinement that set the tone for devotional art across Catholic Europe. The recto here demonstrates that tradition with restrained economy — black chalk building form, a breath of white chalk lifting the light across the face. On the verso, a second compositional sketch hints at a larger altarpiece or fresco project, giving us a rare window into how these studios worked through ideas in layers. The work is held in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, which houses one of the most significant holdings of Italian Old Master drawings in North America. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates the intimate warmth of the original chalk work into a medium built to last, preserving the tonal subtlety and quiet spiritual presence that has kept this study compelling for nearly four centuries.