The bass-baritone and artist Fernando Autori (1886-1937) was born in Calatafini, Sicily, and despite wanting to become a painter, studied pharmacy at the University of Palermo before leaving to study singing in Palermo with Antonio Cantelli. He made his debut as an opera singer in 1908 at the Teatro Bellini in Naples and after the war first appeared at La Scala, Milan, in 1924. He made several successful guest appearances at Covent Garden and other European opera houses in the 1930s

During his operatic career in London Aurori met Rupert D’Oyly Carte (1876-1948), proprietor of the D’Oyly Carte Company from 1913 to 1948, whose portrait he drew along with those of other conductors and personalities associated with the company. This portrait depicts the brothers Francis Toye (1883-1964) and Geoffrey Toye (1889-1942). Geoffrey Toye was the musical director and principal conductor of the D’Oyly Carte Company at the Prince’s Theatre for three seasons, from 1919 until 1924, while the music critic and teacher Francis, who wrote Giuseppe Verdi: His Life and Music, published in 1931, is shown on the left carrying his book Rossini: A Study in Tragi-Comedy. Several of Autori’s portraits were commissioned to appear in the periodical The Tatler, including his portraits of theatre impresario Charles Cochran, the writer H.G. Wells, and the politician Ramsay Macdonald.