A red chalk portrait of a male figure — the only confirmed male portrait in red chalk, the medium used almost exclusively for figure drawing elsewhere in the collection. The face is seen in three-quarter view, the chin slightly elevated, the gaze directed upward and to the right with an expression of alert attention. The red chalk gives the face an unusual warmth — the skin tones that the sanguine medium implies make this feel like a living face in a way the line drawings don't achieve.
The hair at the crown is curly and loosely described with the loop marks of the curly-hair vocabulary. The brows and eyes are the most worked elements: the brow line in a continuous arc, the eye socket shadow built in several overlapping passes, the eye itself described with both upper and lower lids. The nose below has the most tonal modeling — shadow on one side, the highlight of the paper on the other.
At the lower composition, the outline of a rectangular frame or box — the studio prop from 1090 — is visible, suggesting these two works are from the same session, the same model studied in different media and at different moments.
The cool gray paper beneath the red chalk gives this portrait a subtly different quality from the cream-paper sanguine works — the cool ground makes the red marks feel warmer by contrast.