This oil on canvas painting by the Polish artist Arthur Bryks portrays four elderly male figures studying a large open book, which is held aloft by a fifth younger male. The figures are assembled in a circular arrangement, with two heads, either in profile or three-quarter view, occupying the centre flanks of the composition, while the heads of the three remaining figures cluster in the upper third of the scene. The four older males carry long grey beards, and all five wear woollen or fur caps. All faces are transfixed, their minds away in contemplation. The colour palette employed by Bryks is dark and sombre, dominated by primary reds, blues, and yellows.

The picture sits, unglazed, within a moulded giltwood frame and is signed lower left 'ABryks'. The reverse of the canvas is inscribed ‘ABryks 1925 – 1930’ and ‘eigentum’, or ‘property’, of one ‘Henri Suter Carrara’.

Frame: Height 108cm, width 89.5cm, depth 5cm
Canvas: Height 93cm, width 74.5cm