This book, the catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery, London, from July 1991, is the first full consideration in English of the work of Guercino, one of the greatest Italian artists of the 17th century. It focuses on 31 works by Guercino in British collections, all illustrated in colour. 1991 is the 400th anniversary of the birth of Guercino (1591-1666), the leading painter, together with Guido Reni, of the Bolognese school. Guercino enjoyed enormous fame in his own day and for the following two centuries. The National Gallery's Guercino in Britain is one of a series of exhibitions of Guercino's paintings and drawings to be held in 1991-2. The catalogue, to be published in conjunction with the Burlington Magazine, includes an introductory essay by Francis Russell on the collecting of and taste for Guercino in Britain, a discussion of Guercino's career by Michael Helston, and full catalogue entries. The catalogue draws on the immense knowledge of Sir Denis Mahon, the art historian and collector whose own collection of paintings and drawings by Guercino is unrivalled.