This portrait of Paul Alexandre in front of a glass panel is both the culmination of a friendship and the conquest of an art. This was the fifth time in five years that Modigliani had painted the friend who was his first collector. It was the first time he used his stylisation through line with such force, expressing the features in simple gestures, and making the pupils blank. It is the perfection of a poetic, completely new likeness that is timeless and fundamental, but also personal.

Paul Alexandre, a doctor and a friend of artists, played a crucial role at the beginning of Modigliani's career. They never saw each other again after Alexandre joined the army in 1914. His descendants have made the Rouen museum a venue of major importance in terms of understanding the artist.