A man in a blue Japanese-style robe stands beside a table covered with a richly patterned oriental carpet, leaning forward with one hand gripping a book and the other holding a pair of dividers over a large sheet of paper. Sunlight streams in through the leaded glass windows at the left, illuminating the man's face, hands, and the objects on the table, while casting diagonal shadows across the wall and floor. The man's eyes are narrowed and his gaze is directed out the window, his posture suggesting a moment of intense concentration or thought.

The composition is carefully balanced, with the mass of objects and the figure concentrated to the left, and open space and shadow to the right, guiding the viewer’s attention to the man’s focused pose. The surface of the painting shows smooth transitions of light and shadow, and the folds of the carpet and robe are rendered with subtle tonal shifts rather than strong outlines. A wooden cabinet stands behind the man, topped with a large globe that catches the light on its upper surface.

The edge of a dark blue curtain is visible at the upper left, framing the window and casting a soft shadow on the wall. The sunlight creates a warm highlight along the man’s left sleeve and the folds of the carpet, contrasting with the cooler, dimmer areas at the painting’s right edge. The subject is a geographer, surrounded by the tools of his profession: a globe, dividers, maps, charts, and books, all items that a practitioner of geography would use in the seventeenth century.