“Who’s who?” Wurzbach’s Fundus of Images

The Biographische Lexikon des Kaiserthums Österreichs (Biographical Encyclopaedia of the Austrian Empire) compiled by Constant von Wurzbach was published from 1856–1891 and contained “entries on the lives of notable personages, who lived from 1750 to 1850 in the imperial states and crown lands.” In the appendix to the biographies, Wurzbach also listed portraits of the person described, some of which he owned himself. Some of these and numerous further collected portraits, prints, caricatures, etc., which go beyond the theme of the encyclopaedia are part of the Wien Museum collection today.