A large profile portrait in which the hair is the dominant compositional element — a woman seen in pure left profile, the face occupying the left third of the composition, the hair filling the remaining two-thirds as it falls straight and long from the crown down past the shoulders. This is the most geometrically decisive use of hair as compositional space in any portrait.
The hair is described in long, parallel pencil strokes that follow its fall from crown to tip — each stroke running the full length of the hair mass, the direction consistent, the texture achieved through the slight variation in pressure and spacing between strokes. This hair took time to draw: there are perhaps a hundred individual strokes in the mass, each one placed with deliberate attention.
The face in profile at left is described with the economy of Sidney's most confident portrait moments: the brow line, the nose, the lips, the chin — each in a single stroke or two. The eye is barely suggested. The ear is fully described. The neck below transitions to the shoulder with two curved marks.
A headband is visible at the crown — a thin horizontal mark separating the forehead hair from the main mass, indicating a specific accessory that was part of this person's appearance.
The signed "Sid" at lower left is the smallest and most abbreviated signature in the portrait series.