A young boy in a blue smock leans his right arm over the back of a yellow chair, his gaze turned slightly downward and to the left. The background is a vivid, flat field of orange-red, interrupted only by a narrow band of ochre that runs horizontally behind the figure, separating the head and shoulders from the upper edge of the canvas. The blue garment is painted with broad, energetic brushstrokes, creating a sense of movement and texture in the folds and shadows of the fabric.

The boy’s hand, gripping the chair, is rendered with thick, visible strokes, the fingers splayed and the knuckles highlighted by touches of yellow and green. The composition is tightly cropped, with the figure filling almost the entire surface, and the chair’s diagonal slat leading the viewer’s eye toward the boy’s face. Strong contrasts of color—orange against blue, yellow against black—heighten the sense of immediacy and focus attention on the boy’s features.

The paint is applied in textured, directional marks, especially in the background, where the brushwork creates a subtle pattern of overlapping strokes. A dark cap with yellow stripes sits on the boy’s head, its brim casting a shadow across his forehead and right eye. The boy’s hair is short and golden, with individual brushstrokes suggesting strands peeking out from beneath the cap.

His lips are parted, revealing his teeth, and his mouth is painted with a mixture of reds and pinks. The yellow chair features a vertical support and a diagonal slat, both outlined with dark lines that contrast with the bright color. The lower right corner of the painting shows the edge of the boy’s blue garment, where the brushstrokes become more angular and layered.

The background’s orange-red field is textured with visible, crisscrossing brush marks, especially near the top left corner. No secondary figures or objects appear in the composition; the focus remains solely on the boy and the chair. The genre is portrait, focusing on a single sitter, and the work was created during van Gogh’s period in Arles.