The man in the painting probably suffered from rhinophyma, a skin condition where the nose becomes deformed and red-purple. The monogrammist IS was perhaps not born in the Netherlands, but must have worked there for a while and come into contact with Dutch art. The thin, nearly imperceptible brush strokes and the extensive realism are elements that are very reminiscent of the work of the young Rembrandt and other painters in Leiden in the 1630s.