68. ICAZA, Ernesto (artist). Ernesto Icaza (1866-1926). Texto por Xavier Moyssen. Mexico City: Augustin Cristobal Ruiz, 1984. [8] pp. (in Spanish and English), 12 leaves of colored plates, laid in portfolio (folio, original tooled and gilt leather portfolio with suede ties, 67.7 x 49 cm). Very fine.

     First edition, limited edition (#44 of 100 copies, signed by the editor) of a portfolio of high-quality photographic reproductions of Icaza’s paintings depicting the life of the Mexican charro. Ernesto Icaza (1866-1926), was both a skilled painter and a charro, and his firsthand experience infuses his works with both vitality and realism. Among the scenes in the portfolio are rodeos, open-field racing, and working livestock, as well as a Mexican hat dance at a fandango. Few facts are known about Icaza’s life, but he is known in Mexico as “el charro pintor.” His depictions of Mexican ranch life are among the most authentic and detailed such views of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Preserving as they do a life style that is now mostly vanished, the paintings are vital documentation of the Mexican equivalent of the U.S. cowboy.  See Diccionario Porrúa (Ernesto Icaza). ($200-400)