A three-quarter male portrait in ink — the face in slight right three-quarter, the mouth slightly open as if in mid-speech or mid-expression, giving the portrait the quality of a face caught between thoughts. The hair is close-cropped with a short side parting, the strands described with a few bold horizontal strokes across the crown. An open collar is visible below the neck — the shirt or jacket's lapels briefly indicated — placing the figure in the clothed-portrait mode established across the series. The ink is applied with the confident bold-line approach of the best ochre-paper portraits.
The slightly open mouth is the portrait's distinguishing feature — a mouth in transition between closed and speaking, neither posed nor idle. In the ink portrait series, most mouths are set in neutral repose; this one is caught in the moment before or after speech. Combined with the three-quarter orientation and the eyes attending to something to the right of the viewer, the portrait has a quality of interrupted animation: a person in the middle of their own life, observed for a moment.
The open collar with its jacket or shirt lapels connects this portrait to the social-portrait series (Works 1477, 1503, 1510), the clothing placing the subject in their ordinary world. The male face — younger and more open than the bearded portrait of 1513 but not as youthful as Work 1500 — represents a mid-point in the age and character range of the male ink portraits.