Little is known about the subject of this portrait, Elkan Morgenstern. The designation of “rabbi” is affixed to his name in the title of the work, but there are no records of a rabbi Morgenstern at the time. We do know that he was born in Inowroclaw, in Posen, in 1796. He immigrated to the United States in 1850, sailing from Hamburg with his four children; we know nothing of their mother. They lived for a time in New York, and eventually all settled in San Francisco. The date of Morgenstern’s death likewise has been lost.