Painting, in opaque watercolour and gold on paper, the figure of a standing courtier in profile is painted against a plain buff paper ground with a gold sky above streaked with mauve and cream, and a pale blue colour lightly brushed in. A thin layer of green wash indicates grass beneath his feet with a brownish indistinct wash-line above which gives a sense of perspectival space.
The young man is bearded with a shaved head under an orange and gold-striped rounded turban of a Persian or perhaps Deccani form. He wears a white jama with gold-edged lappets under his right arm. His paijama is gold with sprigs of red-flowering plants worn above a pair of green slippers with upper flaps in red and patterned in gold. He wears a patka of gold decorated with end borders of red flowers, over which is belted a brown sword hanger into which is thrust a red and gold punch dagger (katar). His left hand rests on a gold and red talwar sword with a curved blade.
The modelling of the face and clothing is painted with very soft brushwork, with no apparent stippling or hatching lines.
The painting is framed in strips of grey paper decorated with a meandering foliate design in gold outlined in white,black and pale blue at the outer edge. The border has an ivory-coloured ground and is decorated with a design of alternate red poppies and pink lilies outlined in gold. The border has strips of blue-green paper pasted on its margins with a white outline on their inner edges. The central part of the right hand edge has been scraped off and a piece of beige woven textile added as a gutter for the binding. The edges of the page have been gilded.