Wilhelm Vita (Italy, Austria, 1846 - 1919) "The Music Performance". Oil on board. Signed lower right. Sight Size: 14 x 9.5 in. Overall Size: 22.75 x 18.5 in. From 1862-1867 he was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Johann Nepomuk Geiger and Heinrich von Angelis. He settled in Vienna in 1870. In 1875 he painted portraits of the Baron of Lichtenfels and the Knight of Schmerling. This promoted him to the aristocracy circles and soon he got numerous commissions from the imperial house. Several times he portrayed the Crown Prince Rudolf and Emperor Franz Josef as well as Archduke Karl Ludwig and Archduchess Margarete as abbess. After the Paris exhibition ?Salon des refus?s? he founded the so-called ?Salon of the Rejected? in 1889, from which in 1891 the Viennese Artist Club emerged.