Vernet was director of the French academy in Rome when he painted his friend Thorvaldsen. The latter is seen in a work smock with a modelling tool in his hand. On the modelling stand he leans on stands a bust of Vernet, begun by Thorvaldsen around 1830. The painter in a sense has included himself in the portrait of his friend the sculptor. His aim has presumably been to make the painting more personal than was the case with ordinary ordered portraits. He has wanted to immortalise the friendship which existed between the two. This is also why he has phrased an inscription for his model on the edge of the modelling stand: Horace Vernet a Son Illustre ami Thorwaldsen Rome 1833 (= Horace Vernet for his famous friend Thorvaldsen Rome 1833).