Born in Rome, Italy on March 15, 1849, the son of Domenico Tojetti. Virgilio was a pupil of his father and later studied in Paris with Gérome and Bouguereau. He was a resident of San Francisco from 1871 until about 1883 when he moved to NYC where he painted murals in the Savoy Hotel, Hoffman House and others. He became popular in the East as a painter of genre scenes and frescoes. Tojetti died of Bright's disease in NYC on March 26, 1901