An old man sits reading a large volume held on his lap. In the background is the wall of a ruined building, with a blind arch discernible in its surface. The shadow cast on the left foreground suggests another wall further off to that side, possibly part of the same ruins. Behind the figure to the right is a makeshift hut made of logs and sticks lashed together, with a layer of grass forming the roof. On top of the wall adjoining the hut sits a water pot with a cloth beside it. The desolation of the location and the man’s evident poverty, combined with his absorption in study, mark him as a hermit. His rather straggly beard and unkempt hair further underscore his isolation from society. The long flowing robe he wears, which is old and torn, places him in the Orient of antiquity.