Dressed in a fanciful Roman costume Yvan Duban with blond hair and blue eyes poses before an enigmatic landscape. Facing frontally he twists his torso in order to hold and stroke his dog. Both the boy and the animal watch a goldfinch with outspread wings perched on a thornbush.

The artist positioned his figure before an atmospheric landscape and used fluent brushwork rich autumnal colors and exquisite treatment of draperies. All these characteristics betray his training in a Flemish late Baroque style heavily indebted to Anthony van Dyck. The inclusion of elaborate symbolism also reflects a Baroque sensibility. The child’s costume refers to nobility his pet dog to fidelity and the thornbush to the Crown of Thorns.