The painting depicts Fryderyk Chopin. The composer occupies the central and lower part of the picture. He is shown in full face, with his head turned slightly towards the left-hand side of the painting. His face has a strongly elongated, stylised shape, with a high forehead, a sharply defined nose, dark areas around the eyes and narrow lips.

He is dressed in a historicised costume: a dark coat, a light-coloured shirt with a high, ruffled collar, and a large black bow tie. He is holding a sheet of music on his lap or in his hands. This element serves as an identifying attribute, referring to Chopin’s musical oeuvre.

The background has been treated in a decorative and symbolic manner. On the left-hand side, a tall, slender vase containing a flower or a twig is visible, set upon a geometric base. Behind the figure stretches a fragment of a green landscape, with small red roofs in the distance. Brownish-gold curtains appear on either side, lending the scene a theatrical or scenographic quality. This is not a realistic interior, but a space composed of props and symbols.

The colour scheme is dark and subdued. It is dominated by brownish-greens, blacks, browns and cool blues, broken up by the red of the lips, the roof in the background and the warm tones of the curtains. Chopin’s face has been rendered almost like a mask, with strong contrasts of light and shadow. The painting’s impact stems from the tension between the portrait, the theatrical scene and the artist’s symbolic vision.

The face has been greatly elongated and stylised, with the pallor and the dark areas around the eyes clearly emphasised. This technique shifts the portrait towards an expressive psychological interpretation. Chopin is depicted as a sickly, melancholic and withdrawn figure, in keeping with the established Romantic image of the composer. The curtains on either side lend the painting a theatrical quality. Chopin is framed within a sort of theatrical setting.

The painting is expressive and symbolic in nature, with a distinct theatricality to the depiction. The composition is frontal and static. The figure dominates the space but does not fill it entirely. Decorative elements have been left in the background, creating a sort of stage set. The curtains, vase, landscape and sheet music are not rendered in minute detail.

The colour scheme is dark and subdued, based on browns, greens, blacks and cool blues. The contrasts do not serve to create a realistic rendering, but rather reinforce the dramatic atmosphere. The contrast between the light areas of the face and the frill and the dark coat is particularly striking.

The richly ornamented frame is significant for the reception of the work. Its decorative nature reinforces the representational character of the image, but also creates a tension with the modernising, expressive form of the portrait itself. The painting thus functions as a hybrid between a patriotic and cultural memento and an original, stylised vision of Chopin.