Adalbert F. Seligmann (1862-1945) was the only son of the Franz Romeo Seligmann (1808-92), the first doctor of the history of medicine at the University of Vienna. Romeo, a friend of Schubert and Goethe's daughter-in-law Ottilie, owned a large collection of skulls and was probably given several fragments of Beethoven's skull in 1863 when Beethoven was exhumed so that his remains could be put in a new zinc casket. Adalbert, a famous artist known for his realistic works, inherited the fragments. In 1913 he published an autobiography called Ein Bilderbuch aus dem alten Wien (A Picture-book from Old Vienna) that contains several of his drawings based on his memories of his childhood and youth.

This drawing contains sketches for the heads of five people in the book. In the sketch, a smiling Brahms is the bottom left figure. To his right is the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick. The woman above Brahms is Seligmann's mother; to her right is an English tutor named Louise. Above them is the German actress Amalie Haizinger. (Paul Kaufmann, Danville, California, is the great-nephew of Adalbert; he inherited what remained of Adalbert's estate, including the skull fragments and sketches and page proofs for the autobiography.)