A multitude of blue tones like those of an undulating sea captivate our visual imagination in youth. While background waves gently dance across the surface, interrupted only by softly encroaching formations of gold, our attention is nevertheless drawn to the figure in the painting's foreground. Here we observe a young man's distinctive face softly highlighted by a distant light source. His striking visage is framed by long, wispy locks of hair and a stunning hat, whose feathers and pearls radiate like the myriad rays of the sun. The luminous pearls on the hat may very well represent for the youth one of the eight common emblems of Chinese tradition, namely the symbol for genius in obscurity, for, in the words of Lao-Tse, "the chosen one wears coarse garments, but in his breast he hides a precious stone", alluding to the pearl hidden within the oyster...the prince hidden within the common young man.