The portrait of artist Ambrose Patterson painted by fellow artist and friend Hugh Ramsay in 1901-02 is an oil on canvas and measures 90.5 centimetres by 111.8 centimetres.

The portrait is a tonal poem of cream, mustard yellow and warm browns.

On the left-hand side of the background is a large piece of heavy wooden furniture with a deeply carved panelled front, while on the right there is a mustard yellow wall above dark wooden panelling.

Ambrose sits side on, his face in profile, with his left arm draped across the top edge of the chair back.

His short dark brown hair flops generously over his high forehead, is trimmed neatly around his pale pink ear and shaped to the nape of his neck. His dark deep-set eye has a dark shadow beneath it, strongly contrasting with his pale creamy skin. His nose is large and slightly hooked and there is the hint of a moustache on his upper lip, his pale pink lips partially open as if caught in conversation. His pointed chin and strong jaw line are intensely defined above his wide long neck.

Ambrose wears a cream round-necked knitted jumper with a check shirt revealed at collar and cuffs.

His left hand draped across the back of the chair is clasping four long fine paint brushes. The twist of his torso is emphasized by folds in the jumper sweeping down from his left shoulder to the right-hand side of his waist. His body and right arm face forward with the sleeve of his jumper pushed up above his elbow.

Audio description written and voiced by Krysia Kitch