A large ink portrait of considerable expressive range — a woman seen in slight three-quarter view, the face turned just enough from the frontal to give the composition its three-dimensionality. The eyes are the portrait's dominant element: wide, both described with the maximum detail in the ink vocabulary — brows, lashes, the iris, the slightly emphasized whites. The expression carries a quality of alert surprise or recognition.
At the left shoulder, an unusual compositional element: a large curving form that reads as another head or a rounded shoulder, its relation to the main figure ambiguous. This secondary form — barely described, its outline only — creates a mysterious secondary presence in the composition without resolving it.
The hair above the face is drawn with confident flowing marks, the front section sweeping to the right. The hat-like form at the very top of the composition — flat, horizontal, architectural — may be the top of a beret or the bottom edge of a cropped framing element.
Below the face, a buttoned garment is described with two button marks and collar lines. The shoulder and arm at left are broadly described, the secondary rounded form appearing beside them.
The overall effect is of a portrait caught at a moment of genuine surprise — this face was not composed when Sidney drew it.