A left-profile ink portrait of a man wearing a flat cap — the third cap portrait in the new portfolio series (after Works 1492 and 1497), and the most fully described of the three. The cap sits low on the head, the brim extending forward and the crown rounding to the right; below the cap's edge the ear is visible with its characteristic structural marks, and below the ear the jaw descends to the chin and the mouth. The eyes are visible in left profile — the brow descending to the eye, the eyelid line, the nose below. The face is that of a middle-aged or older man: the jaw somewhat heavy, the nose prominent, the lips set in a neutral line.
The ink here is applied with more deliberateness than the rapid gestural strokes of Work 1492 — the cap's forms drawn with particular attention to the geometry of the brim and crown, the face below given careful profile observation. The neck below shows a small mark suggesting a collar or scarf. The shoulder at the lower left is briefly indicated. Among the three cap portraits, this one provides the most structural information: the cap's construction, the face's specific features, the relationship between hat and head all described with the sustained quality of a longer sitting.
The flat-cap male portrait series (1492, 1497, 1502) constitutes a coherent sub-theme within the ink portrait collection — working-class or outdoors figures, the cap as social and personal identifier, the profile as the preferred orientation for this type of subject. The cap functions in these portraits similarly to how the bun or the ribbon functions in the female portraits: a specific, identifying element that places the figure within a world and a moment, the accessory as social portrait. Sidney's sustained interest in this type of subject across multiple drawings suggests a deliberate engagement with a particular social world.