Signed by the artist. Album of 25 high quality plates (five in colour), portraying Jewish labourers and craftsmen in rural Ukraine. A limited edition of 50 copies on Dutch paper and 300 on Japan paper. This is a signed copy no.16 printed on Dutch paper.

Issachar Ber Ryback (1897–1935) was a Ukranian-Jewish artist. He graduated from the Kiev art school in 1916 and played a key role in the Yiddish avant-garde movement of the Soviet Union, for this reason he moved to Moscow and took part in a Jewish Art show in 1917. Following his father's murder he fled to Germany in 1921, where he settled in Berlin and became a member of the Novembergruppe and was involved in a number of important exhibitions. In 1925 he returned for a short time to Russia, before moving to Paris in 1926. Here he lived at the heart of the city's artistic community and exhibited at the Galerie aux Quatre Chemins (1928) and Galerie L'Art Contemporain (1929). In 1935 he died of tuberculosis at only 38 years of age. Ryback remained best known for his depictions of the Shtetl live, and some say that if it wasn't for his untimely passing he might have been as renowned as his Parisian contemporary Marc Chagall. A lot of Ryback's work was lost during WWII.

First edition. Signed and numbered copy no.16 out of edition of 50 on Dutch paper; 25 plates with names of the plates printed on the tissue guards, publishers decorative green roan boards, severely rubbed; leaves clean with occasional minor staining; 34 ll.