Gioacchino Toma

Together, Toma's experiences imbued his work with an overt melancholy – such that critics commonly described him as "il pittore del grigio", the painter of gray.

There, Toma apprenticed with painter Alessandro Fergola and Domenico Morelli, producing sketches and becoming proficient in ornamental paintwork.

He held several exhibitions in Naples (1861–62) and Florence (1863), subsequently leaving public life to teach drawing in municipal schools.

Toma published collections of designs for the manufacture of lace, which were awarded silver medal at the Esposizione Generale Italiana of Turin in 1884.

[4] Toma's pupils included the noted Neapolitan sculptor Giovanni de Martino and painter Lionello Balestrieri.

Angelo de Gubernatis quotes a critic, remarking on the latter painting, who called Toma a painter of "...scenes of sacristy, convents, monks, schools, of scenes where the penumbra of the church choir enlivened by flashes of red light from candles and lamps; he is a master at gathering the ecclesiastical countenance in people and things, and of us getting us to gather the sense of the sacred place which spreads with the smell of incense and light governed by the large hanging lamps."