The painting depicts a portrait of a woman in three-quarter profile. The model is wearing a yellow turban, which may suggest the Eastern or Oriental influences often present in Siemiradzki's work. The clothing appears to be light, in a warm pastel orange which contrasts with the yellow of the turban. The woman has delicate facial features and her gaze is directed downwards, giving the composition a pensive and introspective mood.

The lighting in the portrait is soft but clear, probably coming from the left, which emphasises the sculpting of the face and the fabric arrangements. The colours are relatively limited to warm tones, with dominant yellows and oranges, which are typical of the palette of Siemiradzki, known for his masterful handling of light and colour.

The painterly style is loose, with clear, quick brushstrokes, indicating the studio nature of the painting, or a preparatory sketch for a larger painting. Such studies allowed artists to experiment with colour, light and composition before transferring these elements to the main work.

Henryk Siemiradzki, born in 1843, was a Polish painter known primarily for his monumental scenes of historical, biblical and mythological themes, often enriched with influences from ancient culture, which perfectly suits the style and subject matter of this portrait.

Siemiradzki's legacy includes several painted studies of heads, some of which are characterised by the depiction of a figure inverted in 3/4. Another, but similarly arranged, study of the head of the same model was exhibited by the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1903 and in 1939 during the artist's posthumous exhibition; it is now in a private collection. It is hypothetically dated to 1874.

The work is published in the 'Corpus of Henryk Siemiradzki's Paintings', ed. by J. Malinowski, Warsaw-Toruń 2020.

oil, canvas, ca. 1874 26 x 19.2 cm, inv. no. MG-145, Nacionalni muzej moderne umjetnosti, Zagreb

Corpus of Henryk Siemiradzki's Paintings', ed. by J. Malinowski, Warsaw-Toruń 2020.