Portrait of a Man

From the Getty Museum record

Every element in this portrait contributes to its daring effect. The image is radically composed, cutting across the man's top hat and across his left hand. In that hand, he clutches a barely glimpsed piece of paper or a book, the contents of which are provocatively denied the viewer. The sitter's steady gaze connotes a commanding assuredness that enlivens the exchange between subject and viewer. Sunlight passes through a window, producing a graphic shadow of his hat on the wall behind and brushing the side of his face with luminosity.