Original cabinet photograph signed by Verdi under his image. A famous photograph of the composer as "an elder statesman".

After the enormously successful premiere of Falstaff in 1893, Verdi kept to smaller musical projects and philanthropic ventures throughout his remaining years. He wrote a song to benefit earthquake victims in Sicily, helped to plan, build, and endow a retirement home for musicians in Milan, and contributed to the founding of a new hospital in Emilia-Romagna. The year he signed this photograph saw the appearance of his last major work, a set of four choral settings entitled Quattro pezzi sacri. Although Verdi had composed these settings at different times, he chose to publish them together and they are often performed as a cycle.