In its present form, the painting depicts Ingres standing in front of an easel with a canvas, holding chalk in his right hand, with an oversized brown cloak resting on his upper back.

[1] Ingres first painted Self-Portrait Aged 24 after he won the Prix de Rome, a high point in his early career.

The painting displays many qualities that were typical of Ingres's portraits, including highly defined lines and strong contrasts between dark and light.

[3] Elements of the original portrait that have remained the same include Ingres as the main figure, the head turned three quarters to the front, and the right hand holding a piece of chalk.

[4] It was likely taken only months before Ingres began revising the painting, and it was possibly commissioned by the artist himself as a record of the work before he altered it.

[4]: 456  The photograph differs from Forestier's painting in that it shows the white outlined sketch of François Gilibert, a childhood friend from Montauban, on the canvas.

[5] Andrew Carrington Shelton infers that the left hand is clutching an item related to Gilibert, who died around the years of Ingres's final revisions.

Ingres raised the collar on his neck, and changed the heavy jacket to the brown velvet-collared carrick, an overcoat more similar to a cape.

[9] Scholar John Loughery argues that Ingres’s use of "stationary poses is the implicit fact of relentless change.