This bust in the triangular Renaissance composition of the thinker is a work from his last series of self-portraits. It was produced by an elderly, already nearly blind painter whose arm was shaking as it slid across the paper as if of its own accord.
The lines create a dark image of the painter, whose face is lost in the ink, recognizable just through his highlighted hands, which are supporting a weary head. The pose is that of the bodiless thinker, who is slowly turning to dust and disappearing into oblivion.