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. His collection of small, intricately crafted netsuke represented an alternative to the monumental art of earlier centuries. For Charles, as for many others, collecting helped articulate identity through culture, as he defined himself not only as a man of wealth but as an art connoisseur. However, de Waal highlights that even in this golden age, undercurrents of antisemitism existed in French society. The author recounts how the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906), in which a Jewish French army officer was falsely accused of treason, unleashed a wave of antisemitism that turned public opinion against prominent Jewish figures, so many (including Charles Ephrussi), were socially ostracized, their Jewish identity suddenly overshadowing their cosmopolitan achievements.

By the late 19th century, Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the seat of the Ephrussi family’s European power), was, like Paris, a center of intellectual and artistic life. Viktor Ephrussi, Charles’s cousin, became the head of the Viennese branch of the family bank, and his home, the Palais Ephrussi on the Ringstrasse, reflected the family’s immense wealth and their determination to assimilate into Vienna’s aristocratic culture. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while outwardly cosmopolitan, was built on uneasy ethnic and religious hierarchies. Wealthy Jewish families could rise socially through education, philanthropy, and cultural patronage, but they remained targets of resentment.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 completely changed the political landscape of Austria. As a result of its wartime losses, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, formerly a powerful conglomerate of countries, collapsed, and Vienna was plunged into economic hardship and political instability. For Jewish families like the Ephrussis, who had tied their identity to the empire, the aftermath of the war marked the beginning of insecurity. Their wealth dwindled, and their sense of belonging eroded.

During the interwar years, political instability increased as nationalism and antisemitism grew across Europe. In the 1930s, fascism took hold in Italy, Germany, and Austria, leading to the systemic persecution of Jewish citizens. The 1938 Anschluss, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, was catastrophic for Jewish families. De Waal illustrates its impact, depicting the seizure of the Palais Ephrussi and the confiscation of the family’s possessions. After the war, surviving Ephrussi family members, like Iggie Ephrussi, faced the displacement that many European Jews experienced, becoming stateless, scattered, and alienated from the nations that had once been their homes.