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Lot Essay
Born into an aristocratic family, Ernesto Icaza was well poised to explore the life of the charro, Mexico's "country gentleman" who frequently appears in nineteenth-century rural genre scenes. Like the gaucho in Argentina or the cowboy in the United States, the charro embodies a "Wild West" persona from a bygone era that has become tied to national identity. In the years in between independence and the Mexican Revolution, charro culture thrived as vast tracts of farming and ranch lands were owned and operated by hacendados, members of the country's wealthy elite, many of whom were friends or relatives of Icaza's family. The young Icaza was thus a frequently invited guest at numerous haciendas at the turn of the century, affording him the opportunity to immerse himself in charro life. Indeed, Icaza spent his days not only painting charro traditions, but also enthusiastically participating in their suertes, the nine specific events performed as competitions between haciendas that ranged from the skillful cala de caballo, similar to dressage, to the most dangerous, el paso de la muerte, which involved jumping from a galloping horse onto the back of a running bull. While little is known of Icaza's talents as an actual charro, the acuity with which he captured the emotion and tension of the suertes in his paintings reveals his intimate knowledge of his subject. Always rendered in a naïve style, as Icaza had no formal artistic training, his work conveys an authenticity that is unsurpassed by any other painter of this genre, making him, as the curator Fernando Gamboa declared, the "charro pintor de charros." (1)
Composed of twelve paintings, the present lot provides a comprehensive view of charro life at a particular moment in Mexican history. Dressed in finely embroidered suits, silver spurs and distinctive sombreros, Icaza's charros exude a dignified masculinity as they lasso wild horses, ride bucking bulls and perform the jarabe tapatío, better known internationally as the "Mexican Hat Dance." Much like charro culture, the jarabe tapatío became an important expression of Mexican identity after independence, making Icaza's depiction of it here an indication of his national pride. While these images convey a sense of salad days spent in the campo, they are in fact nostalgic remembrances of a more peaceful past. All but three of these works were completed between 1911 and 1921, a period of revolution and great upheaval in Mexico. With the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) came agrarian reform, effectively ending the hacienda system in an attempt to redistribute land and wealth among the broader populace. Thus by the time Icaza executed these works, the charro way of life that he so fervently admired had largely disappeared, leaving him to recreate in paint that which he could no longer experience on the hacienda.
(1)Lupina Laura Elizondo, "Ernesto Icaza," in Visión de México y sus artistas: paralelismos en la plástica de los siglos XIX y XXI, (Mexico City: Quálitas Compañía de Seguros, 2003), 203.
Composed of twelve paintings, the present lot provides a comprehensive view of charro life at a particular moment in Mexican history. Dressed in finely embroidered suits, silver spurs and distinctive sombreros, Icaza's charros exude a dignified masculinity as they lasso wild horses, ride bucking bulls and perform the jarabe tapatío, better known internationally as the "Mexican Hat Dance." Much like charro culture, the jarabe tapatío became an important expression of Mexican identity after independence, making Icaza's depiction of it here an indication of his national pride. While these images convey a sense of salad days spent in the campo, they are in fact nostalgic remembrances of a more peaceful past. All but three of these works were completed between 1911 and 1921, a period of revolution and great upheaval in Mexico. With the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) came agrarian reform, effectively ending the hacienda system in an attempt to redistribute land and wealth among the broader populace. Thus by the time Icaza executed these works, the charro way of life that he so fervently admired had largely disappeared, leaving him to recreate in paint that which he could no longer experience on the hacienda.
(1)Lupina Laura Elizondo, "Ernesto Icaza," in Visión de México y sus artistas: paralelismos en la plástica de los siglos XIX y XXI, (Mexico City: Quálitas Compañía de Seguros, 2003), 203.