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Rare Artist’s Proof, Straight from a Southern California Estate
Step into the dreamlike world of Mexican artist Leticia Tarrago with this hauntingly beautiful etching and aquatint, “Juego de Pelota” (Ball Game). Two porcelain-faced children stand in quiet reverie beneath a swirling night sky, where a stylized crocodile prowls among pyramids and a crescent moon — a scene that feels equal parts folk tale and fever dream.
Tarrago’s path to this singular vision wasn’t ordinary. Scholarships carried her from Mexico to Warsaw and then into the ateliers of Dutch master engravers, and in 1967 she was personally honored by Mexico’s Secretary of Education with the National Institute of Fine Arts’ engraving award. Her prints now live in collections spanning the Americas and Europe.
This particular impression is an Artist’s Proof — one of a tiny handful (C.A. II/XII) set aside outside the main numbered edition, making it rarer than the standard run collectors typically encounter. It’s hand-signed and titled in pencil by the artist herself, and comes framed under glass with a label from Arjas of Long Beach on the reverse, adding a nice layer of documented history to the piece.
A quietly unsettling, quietly beautiful addition to any Latin American or Modernist print collection.
• Hand-signed in pencil by Tarrago, lower right
• Titled “Juego de Pelota” and numbered C.A. II/XII in pencil
• Framed under glass by Arjas, Long Beach (ready to hang, 22” x 27”)
• Image size approximately 16” x 20”
• Sourced from a Southern California estate
