Christian von Ehrenfels
Christian von Ehrenfels was born on 20 June 1859 in Rodaun near Vienna and grew up at his father's castle Brunn am Walde in Lower Austria. He joined secondary school in Krems and first studied at the Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Vienna and then changed to the Universität Wien.
Christian Wilberg
Wilberg was born in 1839 in Havelberg in the Margraviate of Brandenburg (nowadays Saxony-Anhalt) where he lived until 1861. He was originally a house painter before moving to Berlin where he studied painting at Eduard Pape's atelier. After 18 months, Pape suggested to Wilberg that he should study further with Paul Gropius, where he acquired a good knowledge of perspective and architecture. After finishing his apprenticeship under Oswald Achenbach's supervision in Düsseldorf in 1870, Wilberg traveled through Northern Germany and spent two years in Venice. Even after returning to Berlin, Wilberg continued visiting Italy as his favourite field of art was Italian architecture. Amongst his most important works in this field are his paintings of St Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo.