diff --git a/docling/models/picture_description_vlm_model.py b/docling/models/picture_description_vlm_model.py
index 63c0af8a..a2d2f290 100644
--- a/docling/models/picture_description_vlm_model.py
+++ b/docling/models/picture_description_vlm_model.py
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ class PictureDescriptionVlmModel(
                 self.processor = AutoProcessor.from_pretrained(artifacts_path)
                 self.model = AutoModelForVision2Seq.from_pretrained(
                     artifacts_path,
+                    device_map=self.device,
                     torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16,
                     _attn_implementation=(
                         "flash_attention_2"
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ class PictureDescriptionVlmModel(
                         and accelerator_options.cuda_use_flash_attention2
                         else "eager"
                     ),
-                ).to(self.device)
+                )
 
             self.provenance = f"{self.options.repo_id}"