The Hare With Amber Eyes

The Hare with Amber Eyes unfolds across more than a century of European history, tracing the fortunes of the Ephrussi family and their collection of Japanese netsuke through successive eras of prosperity, upheaval, and exile. Each historical period shapes the fate of the family and also transforms the symbolic meaning of the netsuke from fashionable art objects to vessels of memory and survival. The Ephrussis’ story is inseparable from the great transformations of modern Europe: the optimism of la belle époque, the rise and decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the devastation of World War I, the violent nationalism of fascism and the Holocaust, and the era of postwar displacement and reconstruction.

De Waal’s tracing of his family history begins with la belle époque (or “the beautiful era”) in Western Europe. This period, approximately 1870-1914, was characterized by relative peace, economic expansion, and artistic innovation, particularly in France. Paris became the world’s cultural capital, a city of salons, cafés, and creative experimentation. La belle époque presented opportunities for wealthy figures such as Charles Ephrussi, who became an art historian, collector, and patron of the Impressionists in Paris. Charles’s collecting reflected the sensibilities of the age. His embrace of Japonisme, a fascination with Japanese art and aesthetics, signaled refinement and modernity.