Edme Bouchardon

Depicted in elegant attire, the Bolognese artist Aliberti serenely looks back at the viewer. He confidently clasps a porte-crayon (chalk holder), the same instrument Edme Bouchardon used to make this drawing. Bouchardon drew this strikingly lifelike portrait of the young artist when he visited Bologna on his way back to France, perhaps as a memento of their intimate friendship. The heightened individuality of Aliberti’s likeness is complemented by an inscription documenting the details of its making.

A celebrated sculptor under the French King Louis XV, Bouchardon was returning to Paris from a long period of study in Rome when he drew this portrait of his friend Aliberti. The inscription reads:

Giuseppe Amadeo Aliberti studious painter in Bologna in the Service of His Majesty Carlo Emanuele, King of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont drawn by Monsieur Bouchardon, sculptor of His Most Christian Majesty [King Louis XV], when he passed through Bologna on his return to Paris after he had been called back by his King. 1732

Aliberti wears a smart three-cornered hat and grasps a crayon holder, which would have been used to hold a piece of red chalk much like that employed by Bouchardon to draw him.