Nativity by Remigio Soler
Remigio Soler Tomás was born in Agres in 1897 into a large family of humble laborers. He studied first at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Trades, where his teacher was the painter Salvador Abril y Blasco. Although he initially sought to become a sculptor, economic limitations led him to pursue painting as his primary vocation. At the age of eighteen, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Valencia. Between 1920 and 1926, he shared a studio with the sculptor Pascual Sempere and the painter Martínez Mulet in the former workshop of the painter Fillol, where the three collaborated on significant works of sculpture, polychromy, and painting.
During the Spanish Civil War, Soler Tomás worked in theatrical and decorative arts, painting backdrops, curtains, and posters for the Ruzafa Theater in Valencia, as well as creating landscape scenes, ceilings, and garland motifs in the homes of the affluent. After the war, he returned to religious painting, a field in which he would produce an extensive body of work. Notably, he received commissions from the Capuchins of L’Olleria to decorate their church with mural paintings and to produce oil paintings of Capuchin saints for various conventual spaces.
In Adoration of the Christ Child, Saint Francis of Assisi kneels before the newborn Jesus, who rests upon the lap of the Blessed Virgin Mary as she gently reveals Him to the saint. Francis extends his arms and opens his palms in a gesture of devotion and tenderness, poised as though about to touch the Child. Behind them, Saint Joseph watches the moment with quiet contemplation. To the right, two shepherds approach, one cradling a meek sheep, while on the left, the ox and the donkey rest within the stable. The presence of halos around Mary, Joseph, and the Child indicates that this is not the Greccio re-enactment, but rather the Holy Family themselves. Soler Tomás combines intimate warmth with devotional reverence, characteristic of his mature religious work.
Remigio Soler Tomás died in Agullent in 1983. Three years earlier, his hometown of Agres named him Favorite Son, and he is commemorated there with a public square in his honor.
This image is a public domain image, which means either that copyright has expired in the image or the copyright holder has waived their copyright. Franciscan Gallery charges for the access to high resolution copy of the image. Manually restoration was necessary in order to improve quality, without covering the original image.
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