(Moncalieri 1844–1925)
The Invasion, a Prehistoric Scene, signed, dated Juglaris 1880, oil on canvas, 130 x 201 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Italy, for four generations.

Exhibited:
Paris, Salon,1880, no. 1989.

Catalogued in:
F. G. Dumas, Catalogue illustré du Salon, Paris, 1880, p. 35, no. 1989.

We are grateful to Armando Audoli for his assistance with cataloguing the present lot.

By 1880, Tommaso Juglaris had been living in the French capital on and off for about a decade, where he had met Cabanel and Gérôme - among others - in July 1871. He worked for Thomas Couture in France in 1875, while between 1876 and 1877 he frequented the London milieu. It was to Paris that the artist sent the recently completed L’invasion for the Salon exhibition towards the end of February 1880, just before setting sail for America.

Tommaso Juglaris was driven by having to compare himself internationally with artists of the calibre of Bourguerau and Alma-Tadema (to name but two striking painters present at the Salon of ‘80). He put his whole self into the conception and drafting of this canvas, with the singular intent of producing a virtuoso work of total commitment capable of striking at the hearts of the public and critics alike. He looked for models, drew studies and began sketching on canvas. The painting would be exhibited at the Salon, gaining an honourable mention.

Now that Juglaris’s painting has finally re-emerged after a long and undeserved period of obscurity, the reason for his well-earned honourable mention at the famous Parisian exhibition of 1880 can be fully appreciated. It is an impeccably composed and drawn work of the utmost solidity, enhanced by a confident, taut, and vibrant style of painting that is both robust and refined. We would also like to emphasise that only three preparatory studies of this rediscovered masterpiece are known to date, and these are to be found in private collections. The discovery of L’invasion is particularly important because it adds a decisive piece to the reevaluation of the complex, significant, and unquestionably internationally resonant character that is Tommaso Juglaris.