A close-up ink portrait head on small-format paper — the face slightly tilted, the eyes looking up and to the right with an alert, almost surprised expression. The ink is applied with a relatively fine line, the marks more varied in weight than the broad strokes of the larger ink portraits. The hair is described with quick diagonal hatching strokes at the crown, the cut visible as a clean line above the forehead.
The face is caught in motion — the upward glance gives the portrait an immediacy that the more composed studio portraits do not have. This person looked up, Sidney drew them looking up. The spontaneity is the drawing's primary quality: the hesitation marks at the upper left, the searching lines around the ear and neck, the ink finding the face rather than already knowing it.
The notation '12×18' written in pencil at the lower right corner confirms both the paper dimensions and that Sidney — or someone who organized his work — was aware of the paper's format. This inscription is the only such notational marking visible in this run of drawings, and places this in a different sketchbook or paper source from the life-drawing sequence.
Within the ink portrait sequence — 1343, 1344, and now 1356, 1357 — this smaller format brings a different energy. The life-size or near-life-size faces of the larger works have a confrontational presence; these smaller heads are more intimate, more incidental, the product of a different drawing situation.