This portrait captures a bearded man in a dark suit, his gaze cast slightly downwards, with his hands clasped in front of him. The subject is Antony Valabrègue, a poet and art historian who was a childhood friend of Paul Cézanne. Cézanne painted him in 1866, during the first decade of his career when he was diligently exploring his artistic style. He often enlisted friends and relatives, like Valabrègue, to sit for him in his studio at the family estate in Aix-en-Provence. The visible, textured brushwork gives the oil painting a raw and immediate quality. Its contemplative mood and dark tones would complement a quiet reading nook or a traditionally furnished living space.