A second self-portrait — and a different Sidney entirely. Where the ink self-portrait (523) shows a man of full maturity, complete in himself, this work has the quality of someone younger, more uncertain, working harder to define his own face. The inscription at lower right reads "self portrait" in Sidney's own hand, confirming the identification.
The line quality here is cleaner and more deliberate than 523 — the contours more carefully drawn, each mark made with more conscious intention. The result is a face that feels slightly more constructed, slightly less spontaneous — the portrait of a younger man who has not yet settled into his own features the way the older Sidney had. The cap is similar in shape to the one in 523, suggesting these may be close in time.
The face is described primarily through contour: the outer edge of the head, the brow, the nose in a single clean line, the closed lips. The eyes are the most carefully rendered element — both pupils clearly indicated, the left eye slightly larger than the right in the asymmetry of honest self-portraiture. A slight tilt of the head gives the face a quality of questioning, of looking not at the viewer but through them, thinking.
The warm cream-colored paper gives the ink a warmth that the cooler white of 523 lacks. If these two self-portraits are indeed from different periods of Sidney's life, the paper tone contributes to the sense of a younger, warmer, more uncertain self.
Two self-portraits in the collection is exceptional. Together they form an arc — the young man looking at himself, the older man looking at himself — that belongs at the heart of the book's narrative.