The first praise came from a great master. When the then nineteen-year-old Markus Vallazza showed his first portraits of Oskar Kokoschka with trembling hands in the Uffizi in Florence, Kokoschka immediately invited him to his School of Seeing in Salzburg. Although Vallazza could not accept this invitation for financial reasons, it served as encouragement for him to continue. Since then, he has created around 300 portraits, with a selection of 60 pieces included in this book, which is published in honor of his 70th birthday and features a text by Peter Weiermair. Throughout his career, he always found great supporters. In the 1960s, for example, it was Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore. Confirmed and encouraged, he retreated into his four walls and repeatedly drew and etched portraits of friends, family members, and artists between his cyclical works related to literature.