Dumbbell

A man with a whitened, sorrowful face looks straight out with wide, startled eyes beneath a striped knit cap with dangling red ties. A long orange ribbed scarf is wound twice around his neck over a dark coat, and his white-gloved hands rest side by side at the bottom edge of the canvas.

Set against an almost black background, the composition isolates the face and hands through strong contrast, with the whitened skin, red mouth accents and warm orange scarf standing out from the surrounding gloom. Smooth, precise brushwork gives the clown-like figure a tense, melancholic stillness.