A large profile pencil portrait of a young man with a beard and mustache — the most carefully described facial hair in the collection. The beard is rendered strand by strand in fine parallel marks, the mustache above it described with similar care. Together they create a specific, individual facial presentation — this person chose to wear their beard this way and Sidney recorded it with the attention of someone who understood the individuality of such choices.
The hair above is swept back and falls to the collar length in waves, described in long parallel pencil strokes that follow the hair's natural direction. The wave at the front — a single sweep from the brow — is the most elegantly drawn element.
The profile itself is clean and specific: a strong brow, the eye barely described in the pure profile view, the nose with a slight character to it, the lips just visible below the mustache, the chin setting the beard's lower boundary. At the neck, a collar and what appears to be a turtleneck or high-collared shirt.
At the left edge, a vertical architectural element — a wall edge or door frame — places the figure in a specific interior space without describing the space. The background at right is lighter, the tonal difference suggesting a window or different wall surface.
The overall impression is of a young person of some intellectual or artistic sensibility — the beard, the long hair, the profile-into-space orientation all suggesting someone looking at something rather than simply being observed.