The lady is Dame Ethel Smyth, apparently a good friend of Sargent's. He drew her singing at the piano. The man is W.B. Yeats. Yeats was 40 at the time Sargent drew him, but Sargent's drawing makes him look much younger. He told Sargent that he wore his hair flopped over and a big tie to remind him of his significance as an artist. Personally, I have to believe Sargent *made* him look young, arrogant, and stupid because of that. Certainly one has to think that the dark shadows over the eyes were meant to speak "mysterious" to Yeats and "without light" to the rest of us.
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