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Sargent's original intention was to paint Ribblesdale in formal court livery as Master of the Buckhounds, but the completed painting shows him more informally, in his more practical "ratcatcher" clothes. He stands on a plain parquet floor against a white painted wall, holding a hunting whip in his grey-gloved left hand, with the other hand on his right hip. He is wearing a black top hat, with a black silk muffler knotted to his right side of his neck, and polished black boots. Over his yellow waistcoat, dark brown jacket and buff breeches, Ribblesdale is shrouded by a voluminous black Chesterfield overcoat. The tall hat and the fluted pilaster of the wall behind Ribblesdale, the clear silhouette of his long coat, and subtle changes that Sargent makes to the sitter's physiognomy – such as an elongated nose, and the head disproportionately small in comparison to the body – all emphasise Ribblesdale's thinness and height.A preliminary oil sketch depicts Ribblesdale standing on steps, before a column, but the final painting has him standing casually before the white panelling of Sargent's studio in Tite Street, Chelsea, London. The composition – a full-length portrait of a man standing in a long Chesterfield coat with hand on hip against a vertically delineated background – echoes Sargent's 1894 painting of W. Graham Robertson, shown with a walking cane against a dark doorway.The painting was selected by the historian David Starkey as "my favourite painting" in an article published in Country Life in 2015, in which he praises its "angular, elongated format and black-and-white palette, like a super-size Japanese print" as "Capturing the quintessence of understated aristocratic style … the portrait of an age as well as the man."
whip Tite Street parquet top hat ratcatcher Master of the Buckhounds Chesterfield coat Chelsea, London W. Graham Robertson Country Life London David Starkey court livery Chesterfield overcoat