This portrait of Adam Schwalbe, the artist's foster-father, is among Kiprensky's earliest works and is marked by an emotional "Rembrandtesque" colour scheme. Instead of the balanced, "elevated", "rational" images of 18th-century portraiture, Kiprensky's work is dominated by inner tension, indomitable energy and furious willpower - Schwalbe's brows are furrowed and his lips compressed in an outburst of passion, his fingers grip the heavy staff with determination and his hair is disordered. These distinctive features of the characterization, emphasized by the contrasts of light and shade create the impression of the Romantic extraordinariness and exceptionality of the image.