(Vienna 1803–1887)
Portrait of University Professor Dr. Stephan Schroff, signed Fr. Amerling, oil on canvas, 63 x 50 cm, framed, (W)

Provenance:
Collection of theatre director Franz Ritter von Jauner, Vienna (1831-1900);
Kunstsalon Pisko Vienna, Auction, 11 Nov. 1907, lot 4;
Hermann Eissler Collection (1860-1953);
Gift to his daughter Bertha Anna Morelli (1893-1975) prior to 1927;
608th Art Auction, Dorotheum Vienna, 17 June 1975, lot 4;
Viennese private collection since 1975.

Catalogued in:
Günther Probst, Friedrich von Amerling, der Altmeister der Portraitmalerei, Zurich, Vienna, 1927, no. 165, ill. 14.

Emanuel Stephan Schroff (1799 - 1853)
Son of a surgeon, brother of Karl Damian von Schroff, and uncle of Karl von Schroff.
After his studies in Prague and Vienna and diverse medical appointments, in 1835 he became a professor with the title and status of an Imperial and Royal Counsellor and Staff Doctor. Between 1849 and 1853 he was employed in various military positions and commissions, becoming promoted to Staff Field Doctor first class.
From 1831 onwards, he was Chief Physician of the first cholera hospital in Vienna and, in 1849/50, was made a member of the health commission established to battle a recurrence of the disease.
Together with his brother, he compiled a manual of pharmaceuticals as the basis for the teaching of pharmacology.
He earned recognition for his contributions to medicine and was made an honorary member of the Medical Society in Vienna and, in 1843, an honorary citizen of Kratzau (today in the Czech Republic).

In 1867 the Schroff family were elevated to the hereditary nobility for their services to medicine, becoming von Schroff from this time onwards.

Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950, Vol. 2 11. Vienna 1999, p. 249