This small-format oil on canvas endorses Gálvez Roch’s exceptional skill and training as a painter. Despite earning a name above all for his still lifes, he also excelled as a portraitist.

Always working within the confines of a figurative style, he was nevertheless also conversant with the new languages in contemporary painting whose precedents were to be found in the realism practiced by the impressionists.

The composition of the work, with the model portrayed against a neutral background, and the palette of greys and blacks both in the clothing as well as in the background, are reminiscent of the use other artists such as Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) had made of those same elements. Furthermore, one can also note the bold perspective and a simplification of the rather sketchy brushstrokes used to paint the work.

The way in which the portrayed man looks at the beholder would seem to reveal his loneliness, a quiet personality and the familiarity he probably felt with the artist. The dedicatory next to the signature “A mi amigo Manzano” (To my friend Manzano) confirms the close relationship between the two.