An original matte black-and-white portrait photograph of the Russian-born American pianist, shown seated in a tweed suit, and which he inscribes and signs at the upper right.

Walter Damrosch gave nine-year-old Mischa Levitzky a scholarship to The Juilliard School in 1907. From there, Levitzky continued his studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Ernst von Dohnanyi and won that school's prestigious Mendelssohn Prize. His international concert career took him across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, and he became best known for his interpretations of the Romantic repertory. He died suddenly of a heart attack at age 42.