Technical Notes
The support is a plain-weave canvas and has visible cusping along all four edges. Most of the tacking edges, although now covered with cloth tape, appear to be intact. The ground is warm white and moderately thick; it does not hide the texture of the canvas and seems to extend over the tacking edges.

Theüs executed the portrait within a painted oval format. The thinly applied paint shows little impasto. The oval area of the background was first broadly painted in with a yellow earth-colored paint, and the head and shoulders appear to have been left in reserve. Both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques are evident, and the paints are generally opaque. The shadow areas of the face were rendered with semiopaque applications of varying gray-brown and reddish-brown paint. The flesh tones of the face were painted thinly, primarily by means of a wet-on-wet technique. Facial features were further defined with varying flesh tones applied wet-on-dry.

Finishing touches of white paint overlapping flesh tones in the face suggest that much of the wig was completed after the face. The collar, which also apparently was painted after the face, shows light gray-blue and pink paint in the folds and dark-gray paint applied late in a wet-on-dry technique for the darkest shadows. The dark gray of the waistcoat was painted next, followed by the brown coat. The black pattern on the waistcoat was painted after the dark-gray paint of the waistcoat had dried. Theüs used dark browns in the shadows of the coat, blending them with the lighter brown of the coat in some places to achieve a range of midtones. A dark green, which appears to have been added late to the background, overlaps areas of the wig and the coat.

The paint and ground layers show moderate cupping. There are numerous pinpoint losses throughout the painting. Flaking was consolidated with wax-resin adhesive during a 1952 treatment.

There is blanching and solvent abrasion on the left side of the jacket and in the lower-left background. Other smaller blanched areas are visible throughout. The slight impasto found on some highlights has flattened, probably due to past lining treatments. The painting was last cleaned in 1952; a PVA varnish was applied at the same time.

Frame Notes
The Hogarth-style frame is made of Scots pine and has mitered corner joins. Its body consists of two pieces. The liner has a sandwork flat and an inner edge with a carved foliate design. The outer part of the frame has a reeded, black-painted finish and a wide central cove.