The Flemish painter Joseph Denis Odevaere is here seen engaged on drawing on a stone; he is going to print a lithograph. Self-confidently and quite conspicuously, Odevaere has placed an inscription on the front edge of the stone to the effect that he himself made the portrait as a lithograph in Paris in 1816. Odevaere was able to do something most of his fellow countrymen were still unable to do! Not until1817 did lithography begin to become widespread in Brussels.
The easel in the background is a classical element in portraits of artists. However, it is quite unusual for Odevaere to be wearing an order of chivalry on his lapel. Orde van de nederlandse Leeuwe – the Order of the Netherland Lion – is evidence that he had been created a knight. He is drawing attention to the fact that he occupied a distinguished position. He had arrived in Rome in 1804. There, he must also have known Thorvaldsen, as from 1808 they were both members of the academy of art, Accademia di San Luca. Likewise, they both received commissions for works for the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome prior to the expected visit of Napoleon in 1812. Odevaere received his decoration after returning home in 1814 to be court artist to King Willem I.
J. Odevaere seipsum litographice del. parisiis 1816 / Jos Odevaere / Peintre de S. M. le Roi des Pays Bas, Chevalier de l'ordre Royal du Lion Belgique, membre de l'Institut. / Impression Lithografique de G. Engelmann, rue casette N. 18 à Paris
