[1] Over his yellow waistcoat, dark brown jacket and buff breeches, Ribblesdale is shrouded by a voluminous black Chesterfield overcoat.

[1] The tall hat and the fluted pilaster of the wall behind Ribblesdale, the clear silhouette of his long coat, and subtle changes that Sargent makes to the sitter's physiognomy – such as an elongated nose, and the head disproportionately small in comparison to the body – all emphasise Ribblesdale's thinness and height.

[1] The composition – a full-length portrait of a man standing in a long Chesterfield coat with hand on hip against a vertically delineated background – echoes Sargent's 1894 painting of W. Graham Robertson, shown with a walking cane against a dark doorway.

[1] The painting was selected by the historian David Starkey as "my favourite painting" in an article published in Country Life in 2015, in which he praises its "angular, elongated format and black-and-white palette, like a super-size Japanese print" as "Capturing the quintessence of understated aristocratic style … the portrait of an age as well as the man.

[1] The painting is sometimes known as "The Ancestor", reflecting a soubriquet for Ribblesdale created by Edward VII, on account of the former's archaic speech and dress, and his aristocratic lineage, as exemplifying a typical old-fashioned English gentleman.