Self-portrait with Chimer

The right side of the sheet is dominated by an old man's head in close profile, his wild curling hair and thick beard rendered in minute detail, one eye turned toward the viewer. At left a crouching nude figure wrapped in a draped cloth reaches downward with clasped hands near a pair of worn shoes, while over their shoulder floats a grotesque winged chimera mask with an open, screaming mouth, and a small candle flame burns above the scene.

Done in fine black ink hatching and stippling, the drawing contrasts the tightly rendered, almost photographic beard and eye with the looser, more fantastical linework of the chimera and flowing hair. This tension between realistic portraiture and invented monstrous form gives the sheet an intense, unsettling mood.