A large, direct ink portrait — a woman seen in three-quarter view, her gaze directed at the viewer with a quality of patient, slightly amused assessment. Of all the ink portraits, this one most directly engages the viewer: the eyes are fully described, open, forward-facing, the brow neutral. This person is looking at you and is comfortable doing so.
The hair is drawn with Sidney's most energetic ink marks in the portrait series — large sweeping curves that build the mass from multiple directions, some dark and definitive, some lighter and searching. The mass is substantial — large, sculptural, theatrical — and its treatment takes up more of the composition than in any other portrait.
The face below is more economically described: the eye placement, the nose, the set of the lips, the chin. No element is overworked; each has the minimal marks it needs. The ear at left is briefly suggested. The neck and collar below are indicated in a few efficient strokes.
The expression — patient, slightly amused, fully present — is the most knowing in any portrait. Other subjects look inward, downward, away; this one looks directly at whoever is drawing her, which means she looks directly at whoever is looking at her now, decades later.