Tomasso Juglaris and the drapery
Tomasso Juglaris -partial panel of "A Grecian Festival"
Italian artist Tomasso Juglaris (1844-1925) was a well-known and respected artist and art instructor, teaching the likes of Childe Hassam as well as Henry Gallison. Gallison invited Juglaris to paint a mural for the library he was designing in the style of a Greek temple (inspired by the Parthenon). This would become the 11 ft tall, 240 ft long painting called "A Grecian Festival" representing a "procession of priests and dancing girls coming from a city in the early morning to visit the temple for the purpose of making a sacrifice..." At some point in time, a few of the under-dressed "dancing girls" were draped in very sheer fabric, which may do more to emphasize than to conceal.
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Local legend is that some residents, which may have included the Ray sisters, were scandalized by the nudes, particularly the central figure shown in these photos. Juglaris was supposedly asked to return to Franklin and add some modesty. There are several figures in the mural that are wearing this diaphanous drapery.
Tomasso Juglaris paints the Library's mural
Works of H.H. Gallison
in the Ray Memorial Library
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Henry Hammond Gallison was born in Boston, Mass. on May 20, 1850. As a youth he attended both public and private schools in Boston. He went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1871, then graduate from Harvard Law School in 1875. After pleasing his family with his Harvard education, he decided to follow his dream of becoming an artist. His early painting and drawing classes were through the Boston Art Club, where he met and befriended Tomasso Juglaris. In 1883 he traveled to Paris to study under the French artist Adrien-Adolphe Bonnefoy. While staying at a Paris boarding house he met German singer Marie Router and they married in Paris, June 21, 1885.
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By 1890 Gallison had art studios in Boston, Annisquam (Gloucester), and a home & studio on Alpine Street (later renamed Hillside Road) in Franklin, where he lived with his wife and brother. In Franklin he put all of his Harvard education to good use. He was first a doctor in his cousin J.C. Gallison's medical practice, and later he became the local Justice of the Peace. The Gallisons left Franklin after the death of Henry's brother, and moved to Boston. But he was destined to return. Henry's wife, Marie, describes in her autobiography, My Life on Two Continents, "Henry came home one day, glowing with enthusiasm. Lydia Ray...had given him a commission to erect a library in Franklin in memory of her parents. Henry's intention was to build a Greek temple to show the young people of Franklin the difference between a dignified building and the usual clubhouse". H.H. Gallison was a preeminent artist of his time, but, sadly, his work did not have the longevity of his contemporaries. Paintings that were once the centerpiece of world-class exhibits are now forgotten artifacts in museum storage. The Ray Memorial Library building is not just a tribute to the Ray family, but also to the creative genius of Henry Hammond Gallison & Tomasso Juglaris. In Franklin, their works and their memory live on.
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The majority of the library's compositions by Gallison and Juglaris were painted at Gallison's studio in Annisquam.
Sample of the works of Tomasso Juglaris in the Ray Memorial Library
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Tomasso Juglaris was born in Moncalieri, Italy on Oct 9, 1844. He studied art in Italy and France and became skilled in mural painting, ceramics, illustration, furniture design, stained glass, stage set design, lithography and just about everything else related to fine and decorative arts. In 1880, while in Paris, he was offered a job in Boston as art director for a company that published greeting cards. In 1881 he joined and exhibited at the Boston Art Club, and began working for a stained glass manufacturer (Juglaris designed the stained glass for the Tufts University Chapel). In 1882 he became a teacher for the Boston Academy of Art and was and instructor for many now famous artists, including Childe Hassam and in 1885 he was invited to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design. Juglaris had returned to Italy by 1897 where he married and reconnected with art community. In 1902 he was called back to Boston by his old friend Henry Gallison to complete a mammoth art project for the Ray Memorial Library.
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Franklin's Federated Church also has an impressive work by Tomasso Juglaris, pictured below:
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Portrait of Joseph & Emily Ray by Frank Hector Tompkins
Frank Hector Tompkins
Frank Hector Tompkins was born in upstate New York, but grew up in Ohio, later enrolling at the Cincinnati Academy of Design. He also attended the Art Students League in New York City and, like many artists of his generation, traveled abroad from 1882 to 1887, studying at the Royal Academy in Munich. There he was awarded two first place prizes for painting in 1884 and 1885. Upon his return to America in 1887, Tompkins opened a studio in Boston and joined the Boston Art Club, participating in group exhibitions over the next three decades.
