This rectangular, vertically oriented photograph of artist John Singer Sargent was taken in the museum's Gothic Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The platinum print is placed on a piece of large rectangular brown paper. In the foreground, Sargent stands in profile to our left and faces to our right. He has dark hair, brushed back, with a full moustache and beard that appear to be a lighter shade of brown. He wears a white jacket that partially extends away from his stomach, as if caught in motion, and a white collar peaks out underneath. His pants are dark with small stripes, almost indiscernible in the image. Sargent holds brushes and a palette in his left hand, while the arm closest to the viewer is in motion, partially blurred. His head is turned slightly toward us, and he has a cigarette in his mouth. His gaze is downward and his eyes appear closed, perhaps in the middle of blinking. The background is mostly in shadow, with the only light coming in from a back window to our right. Objects, including a table with a framed photograph on it, a chair, and a sculpture in the far background, stand to our right.