Frans Blei.

The bespectacled Franz Blei, a scholar of erotic poetry, holds aloft an unlighted cigarette between the fingers of his rigid right hand and props his chin on an outstretched thumb. Wearing a knowing expression, he leans slightly toward the camera while resting his elbow on his gracefully cupped left hand. The acute right angle of his arm is absorbed into the deep black of his jacket.

Hugo Erfurth printed the image using the painterly oil pigment process, which produced a grainy texture, obliterating hard edges and crisp detail and softening features.