JOSE TOVA VILLALBA (Seville, 1871-1923)."The children of the shell. After MURILLO.Oil on panel.Signed in the lower right corner.Measurements: 53 x 56 cm; 80 x 82 cm (frame).Tova Villalba reinterprets with searched fidelity the famous oil painting of Murillo, representing the moment in which Jesus gives to drink water of a shell to his cousin John the Baptist. Jose Tova Villalba entered the Provincial School of Arts and Crafts in 1885, where he remained until 1894, receiving drawing and painting classes from Eduardo Cano and Fernando Tirado, and learning the technique of ceramics with Manuel Soto y Tello. In 1900 he became a member of the faculty of the School, where he went through the entire teaching staff, from meritorious to full professor, winning the competitive examination on April 7, 1916. A year later he took charge of the subject of artistic ceramics, captivating his disciples. At the same time he founded a ceramics factory on LÃctores Street, in the heart of the Calzada district, bordering the Campo de los Mártires, called Fábrica de Cerámica San José. After his early death, on June 3, 1923, the factory continued to operate under the name Viuda de Tova Villalba. Precisely, in 1927, his best disciple, Enrique Orce Mármol, took over the artistic direction of the factory and ran it until his death in the postwar period. As a ceramist he won several prizes, and also as a painter, winning the poster competition for the Holy Week and Seville Fair of 1904. He is also the author of the drawing of the canopy of the Virgen del Refugio, which was unveiled in 1903 and embroidered by RodrÃguez Ojeda.