An offset of a drawing in which St John the Evangelist is seated in the centre, almost full length, writing in an open book supported on his right knee. He appears to be looking at St John the Baptist, who is only partly visible on the right, looking at the Evangelist as he points upwards above his head.

This is an offset of a preparatory drawing, now untraced, for Guercino's altarpiece The Madonna and Child with Saints Lucy, Francis, John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, painted in 1631-2 for the church of S. Giovanni Battista in Pesaro, of which only a small fragment survives. Representations of the Evangelist and the Baptist also occur in another offset, RCIN 903174, which was taken from a drawing now in the Los Angeles County Museum.

This is one of 116 offsets not listed in Inventory A (RCIN 903079-903195). The following note in an old, but later, hand is found overleaf on p. 72 of the inventory: 'There appears to be no Catalogue of the drawings of Guercino, termed off-tracts contained in Volumes XV & XVI of his Works.'