The Hare With Amber Eyes

The collection of 264 netsuke is the memoir’s central symbolic thread, weaving together more than a century of the Ephrussi family’s history. Across generations and continents, these miniature Japanese carvings in wood and ivory change meaning as they pass through different hands, reflecting their owners’ shifting identities, values, and fates. Their journey from aesthetic objets d’art to relics of survival mirrors the Ephrussi family’s transformation from cosmopolitan prominence to displacement and reclamation. Through the evolving role of the netsuke, de Waal explores how objects can both embody and outlast human experiences, becoming vessels of cultural continuity amid rupture. Their durability contrasts with the transience of the worlds they pass through, from the salons of Paris to the devastation of 20th-century Europe.

When Charles Ephrussi first acquired the netsuke in late 19th-century Paris, the collection was part of his engagement with Japanese art, signifying refinement and artistic sensibility. He displayed the netsuke in his apartment as objects of aesthetic pleasure, underscoring his cultural belonging within an elite circle of intellectuals and artists. Inviting touch and intimacy, they also played a role in his sensuous relationship with Louise Cahen d’Anvers.

When the collection passed to Vienna and entered the household of Viktor and Emmy von Ephrussi, the netsuke took on a new, domestic significance.