Jacques-Louis David

Studio of Georges Rouget

National Gallery of Art

This painting is an upper-body portrait of a seated man. His body is turned to the left, while his face is turned to the right. His facial features include a fair complexion with a ruddy glow on his cheeks, prominently arched gray eyebrows, gray eyes, and pink lips that appear to be uneven, with the left side higher than the right side. His hair is short, gray, and wavy. The man is dressed in formal attire, wearing a dark green-blue coat over a white waistcoat and a white cravat around his neck, with a striped yellow, red, blue, and white shirt peeking out around his collar. He has a red flower pinned to his lapel, and hanging from it is a gold-and-white medal shaped like a star. He holds a quill pen in his right hand, resting it on an olive-green cloth spread across his knees. The background is dark gray, with a hint of a reddish wooden cabinet or chest in the bottom right and a gray cloth or coat hung on the right.