Man with dark hair and light eyes
Click here to view it larger.
I try to give unique titles to each of my posts, but when it’s just another little CDV of a guy standing there, with no identification or location, it’s hard to know what to say. Yet for all its simplicity, there’s so much about this photo that seems singular, at least in my collection. He’s got quite a head of dark, curly hair, which he’s styled without fully taming. The dark hair sets off the extraordinary eyes, big and light, set in the angular planes of his face. I’m intrigued by his coat. A comment on a recent post talked about how vintage clothes often don’t fit the way our modern eyes expect them to, as this coat doesn’t. That makes me wonder if it’s an older fashion, or just an oddly-fitting coat. (Enlarged, you can see what looks like ribbing in the coat’s fabric, with the coat stitched together so that the ribbing is diagonal.) The hat looks unusual for this sort of portrait. And the pose left me wondering at first if he was missing part of his left arm, with the sleeve tucked into the coat pocket. But the pocket is too low, so I guess he’s just holding his arm behind his back. He looks sure of himself, which I like.
Pics of Then 
He has a rakish air. I’d be inclined to think that he borrowed the coat for the photo, but nothing about him suggests that he was poor. An intriguing fellow!
Yes, I agree, rakish is a good word. And it’s impressive how assured he manages to look, even though his coat seems too big.