"From Locke-Ober to the Franklin Library"

(Photograph by Robert Wierling used with permission of Franklin Public Library)

Out this weekend in the Boston Globe is a new article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Mark Feeney with photographs by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jessica Rinaldi, titled "From Locke-Ober to the Franklin Library." The article shines a light on the current exhibit at the Franklin Library, marking a century since the death of  library muralist Tomasso Juglaris.

The Boston "angle" that Feeney explored is the risque Gilded Age nude painted for Locke-Ober, for more than a century the preeminent dining and drinking establishment for Boston's elite men (until gender discrimination was lifted late in the 20th century).   That, too, was a product of the Juglaris brush.

Feeney uncovers much else as well about the once internationally-known artist and his works across two continents. Locally, Tufts University, Harvard and a Newton church feature his work and the Michigan State Capitol Rotunda  features includes several of his canvases.  However, his most substantial work product was created for the new Ray Memorial Library Building in 1904 (still the main structure of the Franklin Library) with its sprawling Grecian Festival,  at the time, the largest mural work in the United States.

“Visions of a Master: Tommaso Juglaris at the Library and Beyond,” an exhibition at the Franklin Library runs through Dec. 20.and includes a print of Mademoiselle Yvonne, though only visible through glass in the archive room.  The murals themselves will be there long after the show is gone.

As for the original Mademoiselle Yvonne, she will soon grace a new room at the Clarke Cooke House restaurant in Newport, RI -- an upscale eatery owned by David Ray who was the last owner of Locke-Ober.