The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Paris View

One day when summer was in its full bloom and Paris was but a dream, a book friend indicated — quite emphatically, as I now recall — while pointing to The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal, that it was an excellent book. “You should read it,” he said. “Really … it’s a great book.” 

“Oh, fine,” I said, reluctantly. It’s a memoir, you see, and not my typical cup of tea. Nonetheless, I grabbed the copy from the bookshop shelf and took it home, where it sat for several weeks. I began to imagine the tiny hare on the cover staring at me reproachfully each time I passed.

The hare with amber eyes netsuke.

When I finally picked it up and began, I found that my book connoisseur friend was correct — it was well written and extremely engaging. 

It’s a story about a collection of netsuke bought in Paris in the 1870s by Charles Ephrussi, a cousin of the author’s great-grandfather. The book relates the story of these beautiful art objects and the events occurring around them throughout their travels — from Japan to Paris, Vienna, Tokyo, and London, where they eventually wind up in the possession of Mr. de Waal.

As you read, you get a sense that Mr. de Waal lived among stories — great and tragic ones. He weaves a strong visual tale of these tiny figures — ivory, horn, boxwood — delicately and intricately carved by Japanese artisans and initially collected by Charles. 

As an artist himself, Mr. de Waal has a visual capacity to capture the essence of the past beautifully, so the reader is easily able to “see” the places, the rooms, the people, the netsuke, as they move through time.

While the lives of the netsukes began in Edo (pre-Tokyo), they enter this story in Paris, in Charles Ephrussi’s study overlooking the rue de Monceau, kept in a black polished wood vitrine lined with dark green velvet and reflected in the mirrored backing. 

With this story resonating in my mind, I thought it would be interesting to see the places in Paris where Charles lived, and the sites that Mr. de Waal visited in his quest to track the history of the netsuke collection.

So we begin where Charles lived after his arrival in Paris from Vienna in 1870, the Hôtel Ephrussi, the family’s home, at 81 rue de Monceau. 

Parc Monceau

We arrive at the Parc Monceau and walk through its lovely grounds, stopping occasionally to enjoy the autumn flowers, fantastic variety of trees and beautiful art and installations that make this park unique.

A hillside garden in Parc Monceau.

The park was established in the 18th century at the request of the Duke of Chartres, cousin to King Louis XVI. It was unconventional in its tastes at the time with its many conflicting architectural features. 

Charles was 21 when he arrived in Paris. By that time, the park was undergoing a transformation by Baron Haussmann, opening to the public in 1861. 

The Hôtel Ephrussi

Rue de Monceau is south of the park and we find #81 near the top of the hill. It’s an impressive building, five stories high, with five windows across. Four Corinthian pilasters add a Neo-Classical feel to the façade. Stone urns sit atop the parapet, and the Ephrussi family’s double-Es are still present in the metal grilles over the street windows.

The Ephrussi mansion at 81 rue de Monceau.

We look up at the second floor windows and envision Charles’ suite of rooms: an antechamber, two salons — one which became his study — a dining room, two bedrooms and a petite chambre.

It’s a neighborhood of very impressive homes, once owned by well-known families.

With command of a number of languages, a great amount of money and his freedom, Charles spent a good deal of time traveling during his 20s. During his travels, he became a collector — drawings, tapestries, enamels, sculptures and furniture. 

Musée Nissim de Camondo

To get a better sense of Charles and how he lived, Mr. de Waal visited the Musée Nissim de Camondo to view the contemporaneous furnishings in this Museum of Decorative Arts. 

We, too, visit this museum. 

Musée de Nissim Camondo from the stairway.

We’ve come to see the furnishings of the main house, particularly those in the two drawing rooms. 

The furniture throughout this beautiful home turned museum has been crafted by artisans who worked for the king and other wealthy clients. Through it, we get a feel for how Charles’ apartment would have been furnished. 

Meanwhile in Charles’ life, he begins to write a book about Albert Dürer, while also writing for the Gazette des beaux-arts. 

The Gazette has a reputation as an essential part of society life in Paris. For Charles, it’s “a calling card into those places where society and art intersect.” He’s invited to important salons where he meets poets, playwrights, painters — he begins to find a life for himself in Paris. 

Mr. de Waal finds that life reflected in the social columns of the day, with Charles and his brothers recorded attending Parisian balls, musical soirées, operas, and receptions for princes and countesses.

Japanese art

Charles has new interests … he has a lover and begins collecting Japanese art. 

Japan has opened up in Paris and Charles and Louise buy “Japanese black and gold lacquer boxes for their parallel collections: they start their love affair with Japan.”

In his commentary, Mr. de Waal wonders what it must be like “to have something so alien in your hands for the first time, to pick up a box or a cup — or a netsuke — in a material that you had never encountered before and shift it around, finding its weight and balance, running a fingertip along the raised decoration of a stork in flight through clouds?”

The quantities of Japanese art that came into Paris at that time were overwhelming. They arrived at a merchant’s shop and immediately left it.

Before the netsukes, Charles had already collected 33 black-and-gold lacquer boxes that he placed among his other treasures. They sat near his Renaissance wall hangings and his pale Donatello sculpture in marble.

Charles also developed a growing passion for the work of the Impressionists, creating one of the great early collections of this art. He purchased forty paintings within a three-year period, sending an additional twenty to his cousins in Berlin. His collection included paintings and pastels by Moriset, Cassett, Degas, Manet, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro and Renoir.

This art, along with the Japanese creations “conjure a picture of a place where sensations are always new, where art pours out of daily life, where everything exists in a dream of endless flow.”

The netsukes

Following the promotion in a book by Edmond de Goncourt that described the “obsessive search for the perfection” of these tiny sculpted masterpieces, suddenly, it seemed, netsukes had become essential to salon life.

And so Charles buys his netsukes — 264 of them. It’s a huge collection of small things, bought as a complete, spectacular collection. A fox with inlaid eyes, in wood. A curled snake on a lotus leaf, in ivory. A hare and the moon. Three toads on a leaf. An octopus. A priest on a horse. A persimmon. And countless others — figures, animals, erotica and creatures from myth. 

Lunar hare with moon netsuke

The purchase details are lost to time, leading Mr. de Waal to wonder, “Had they just arrived? Was Charles present when they came in? Did he fall in love with the startlingly pale hare with amber eyes, and buy the rest for company?” 

What he does know is that Charles bought a black vitrine to put them in. 

More than six feet tall with wood polished like lacquer, the vitrine, with its mirrored backing, reflects all the subtle variations in colors of the creams, golds and browns of the ivory, horn and boxwood netsuke.

These tiny figures are not shut up in isolation to be viewed. The cabinet is made to be opened, for a netsuke to be chosen, “picked up in a moment of seduction, and encounter between a hand and an object that is electric.” And the netsuke are perfect for the life of Charles’ salon.

And Charles’ life is progressing. In 1881, the young poet Jules Laforgue is recommended as a secretary to assist with the lists, notes, and such for the publication of his book on Dürer. And at age 30, Charles becomes the editor of the Gazette. 

Mr. de Waal, worrying about how he would construct a life out of mere objects is able to feel the room through Laforgue’s writing; he can hear their nighttime conversations and so can the reader of this wonderful book.

Charles has become good friends with Marcel Proust and a number of painters of that time. He continues to support the impressionist movement. Charles played a pivotal role as an advocate and an editor. One critic wrote of Charles as ‘an older brother to young artists,’ visiting with them in their studios, purchasing a painting directly from the easel.

The book speaks to Charles life, his friendships with the painters, poets and writers of the day and how the “conjunction of Japanese objects and the shimmering new style of painting seems right,” and how this new Japanese art had a profound effect on artists like Manet, Renoir and Degas, who were also avid collectors. 

Charles even makes it into one of Renoir’s paintings, along with his friend Laforgue.

Renoir’s The Boating Party with Charles in top hat in the background.

At age 36, Charles becomes the proprietor of the Gazette. It’s 1885, and he’s becoming a public figure.

Another move

In 1891, Charles moves his netsuke to 11 avenue d’Iéna. The house is larger than the Hôtel Ephrussi and more austere. It’s located on a hill just north of the Champ de Mars, where the Eiffel Tower had just been erected. It was a very desirable neighborhood, referred to as the ‘hill of arts.’ He lives there with his brother Ignace and they give large dinner parties and soirées. 

Courtyard at the current 11 avenue d’Iena.

But Charles appears to grow away from his netsuke.

With the coming of the new century, Charles’ first cousin is to be married in Vienna, someone Charles has known since childhood. He sends the couple “something special, a spectacular something from Paris: a black vitrine with green velvet shelves, and a mirrored back that reflects 264 netsuke.” 

And so ends the Paris section of this remarkable book. Moving to Vienna with the transfer of the netsukes as a wedding gift, the next chapter of this story begins. 

But this and further parts of this tale are not mine for the retelling. You, the reader, will need to decide if your interest is piqued enough to find out what happens as this most interesting of collections travels through time and the world, interacting, impacting and escaping some of history’s most insidious events. 

All I can say is, “You should read it … it’s a really great book.”

 

Parc Monceau and its museums

Parc Monceau, at the northern edge of the 8th Arr., was established in the late 18th century by Phillippe d’Orléans, the Duke of Chartres and cousin to King Louis XVI, as a private garden. The park is a favorite of ours and as part of research for an upcoming post on the book, The Hare with Amber Eyes, we visit this park and two museums located at its borders.

Parc Monceau

In 1779, toward the end of the Age of Enlightenment, the Duke of Chartres opened the Parc Monceau, an extravagant pleasure garden. At that time, the park appeared to be a hodgepodge of fantasy focused on various cultures. Among its original installations were a Roman colonnade with a pond, a miniature Egyptian pyramid, a Dutch windmill, a temple of Mars, an Italian vineyard, and other statuary. At its opening, the garden featured exotic animals and servants in flamboyant dress. It was pure fantasy designed to surprise all those who entered. 

Parc Monceau carousel near the rotunda.

The park was purchased by the city of Paris in 1860, and was part of the grand transformation of Paris created by Baron Haussmann. Exotic trees and flowers were planted, enhancing its beauty. Walkways were widened and paved to accommodate carriages and additional walking paths were added.

Lush garden in Parc Monceau.

The park became a favorite among Parisians, including writers and painters. In the spring of 1871, with the Parc Monceau as inspiration, Claude Monet created a series of three paintings, with two additional ones painted in 1878.  

We arrive at the park, now considered one of the most elegant gardens in Paris, on a very warm autumn day. We pass through the wrought iron gates embellished with gold located on either side of the rotunda.

Rotunda at the entrance of Parc Monceau.

The grounds are beautiful with the sunlight illuminating the English-style gardens. Most of the benches located along the walking paths are occupied by Parisians eating lunch, reading or chatting with companions.

Scattered throughout the grounds, you’ll find a number of statues of writers and musicians that have been added over the years. 

Spring photo of the Venetian-style bridge that replaced the Chinese arched bridge.

The park is known for its spectacular collection of trees, including a sycamore maple, dating from 1853, with beautifully twisted branches that reach 30 meters in height. Because of the variety and height of the trees, as well as the pond with its large carp and smaller goldfish populations, a great diversity of birds can be found at the Parc Monceau. 

Colonnade and pond in Parc Monceau.

As we meander through the park, we find the great lawn populated with luxuriating Parisians relishing the greens and golds of this sunny mid-October day.

Parisians relaxing on the lawn at Parc Monceau.

Surrounding the gardens of Parc Monceau are lavish mansions built in the 19th century. The homes seem unaffected by time and the neighborhood is quiet and comfortable. The grand structures are elegant yet unassuming and speak of the wealth and sophistication of that era. 

Many financiers and bankers lived on the rue de Monceau, which included the palace of Adolphe de Rothschild at #43 with its glass roofed exhibition room that housed his Renaissance art collection. Two mansions adjacent to the park are now museums, including the Camondo family home at #63, and the Cernuschi mansion on avenue Velasquez.

Musée Nissim de Camondo

The Musée Nissim de Camondo opened in 1935 and presents Moïse de Camondo’s spectacular collection of French decorative arts from the late 18th century.

We enter this museum through its beautiful courtyard. In 1911, Moïse had his father’s house razed and construction was begun on his new home, designed in the style of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Moïse and his children, Nissim and Béatrice, moved into their mansion in 1913; the ‘perfect 18th century setting’ for his collections. 

Courtyard entrance to Musée Nissim de Camondo.

There are three floors accessible by visitors with a restaurant on one side of the courtyard. It’s late in the afternoon and so we go directly into the museum. 

The lower ground floor houses the kitchen, scullery, chef’s office and the servants’ dining room.

We’ve come to see the furnishings of the main house and begin our tour on the upper ground floor. We have access to six rooms including the dining room, two studies, the porcelain room and the pantry. We’re particularly interested in the furnishings contained in the two drawing rooms — the great room that opens onto the garden and the smaller oval salon with its series of pastoral scenes painted by Jean-Baptiste Huet. 

We imagine what it must have been like during that time period as we walk through these rooms. The Louis XVI-style furniture in the great drawing room comprises a chest of drawers by Jean-Henri Riesener (Marie-Antoinette’s preferred cabinetmaker), a ladies’ writing desk, a suite of seats upholstered in Aubusson tapestry, and a pair of cabinets with Japanese lacquer panels by Adam Weisweller, whose work was often sold to the French court. The Savonnerie carpet in this room was produced in 1678 for the Grande Galerie at the Louvre.

Great drawing room

In the smaller salon, we find additional Louis XVI-style furniture as well as a folding screen from the games room at Versailles by master cabinetmaker Jean-Baptiste Boulard. 

On the first floor, we find the two apartments of Moïse and Nissim, plus a drawing room, the library and the bathrooms.

The blue drawing room was once Béatrice’s apartments. After she and her family moved out in 1923, Moïse turned the space into a large, light-filled room to be used as a drawing room and study. The wood paneling was originally painted a peacock blue and so the room was called the “Salon Bleu.” Due to age, the paneling now appears to be a shade of green, but the room is beautiful and elegant and includes a series of paintings of Paris, along with eight watercolors from the 1880s by Johan Barthold Jongkind.

Blue drawing room

Of course, the library is my favorite with its wonderful view of the Parc Monceau and its carved wood paneling housing the books collected by the family. The room is rotunda-shaped and located in the center of the private apartments.

Camondo Museum library

Moïse’s bedroom contains several pieces dating from the mid-1700s, including the bed and another Savonnerie carpet, which was originally in the chapel at Versailles. There are a number of stamped pieces including a marquetry chest of drawers by Matthieu-Guillaume Cramer and a folding screen by Louis Falconnet.

Nissim’s apartment has not been kept as it was, with some of the furnishings moved to the blue drawing room; however, the bed and other historical objects speak to a time when Nissim resided here.

The furniture throughout this beautiful home turned museum has been crafted by artisans who worked for the king and other wealthy clients.

A bit of history about the Camondo family

Shortly after the Camondo’s moved into their new mansion on rue de Monceau, Nissim joined the French Army. It was 1914 and the beginning of the First World War. He transferred to the air force in 1916, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and subsequently became a pilot. On September 5, 1917, Nissim’s plane was shot down during aerial combat near Emberménil in Lorraine.

Lieutenant Nissim de Camondo

Moïse’s daughter, Béatrice and her husband Léon Reinach, had two children, Fanny and Bertrand. When the Second World War broke out, the family continued their lives as usual. In 1942, Béatrice, Léon and their children were arrested and interned in Drancy. Léon, Fanny and Bertrand were deported to Auschwitz in November 1943. Béatrice was deported in March 1944. None of them survived.

As for Moïse, he never quite recovered from his son’s tragic death. He closed down the family’s bank and his life was never the same. Rare visitors were either close friends or scholars. His home and collections were bequeathed to the French state in Nissim’s memory upon Moïse’s death in 1935. 

Musée Cernuschi

Located at 7 avenue Velasquez at the east entrance to the Parc Monceau, you’ll find the Musée Cernuschi, or Museum of the Asian arts of Paris. 

Musée Cernuschi

Henri Cernuschi was an Italian patriot and one of three heroes who liberated Milan from Austrian occupation in 1848. He fled to Paris after the fall of the Roman Republic and eventually built his reputation as an economist. From 1871 to 1873, Henri and his friend, Théodore Duret, a young art critic, traveled to Japan and China where he acquired a collection of about 5,000 works of art.

Upon his return to Paris, Henri built his home on the Parc Monceau, a private neoclassical-style mansion where you can see mosaic medallions of Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci on its façade.

Upon entering the museum, one is immediately taken with its high ceilings and windows that look out onto the park. A great bronze Buddha, acquired in Japan, dominates the room. 

Cernuschi’s Great Hall

As you move through the space, you’re able to follow Henri and Théodore’s journey through China and Japan from the plaques arranged on the friezes at ceiling level. 

By the time Henri returned in 1873, Japan had opened up in Paris and it was the height of what was called ‘Japonisme.’ The wealthy of Paris, along with writers and painters — in particular the Impressionists — couldn’t get enough of Japanese art. In an article in the Gazette des beaux-arts in 1878, a writer wrote:

“One kept oneself informed about new cargoes. Old ivories, enamels, faience and porcelain, bronzes, lacquer, wooden sculptures … [they] simply arrived at a merchant’s shop and immediately left for the artists’ studios or writers’ studies.” 

This passion for Asian art made Henri’s mansion a center of activity from 1876 to 1896.

Since its opening in 1898, the museum has acquired additional objects including archaeological pieces discovered in the mid-20th century in China and Vietnam. Throughout the years, the museum has hosted major exhibitions of works from China and enjoys close associations with Asian artists active in Paris.  

There are currently about 12,500 art and archaeology objects in the collection with about 900 on permanent exhibit in the museum. The collection includes pottery, jade, ivory, bronzes and statues. A collection of contemporary paintings and photographs can also be viewed. 

Henri bequeathed his mansion and Asian collections to the City of Paris in 1896.

These fascinating museums, along with a stroll through Parc Monceau, are perfect for a beautiful, sunny October day.

Avril à Paris

I arise to a sky of subtle blue, the color of newness and awakening. Cross-hatched with the white tails of jets high in the sky, it looks like Summer seersucker gone wild.

It’s a lazy Sunday morning without the typical tourist need to get up and out to see the sites and make the most of the time one has in the City of Light. My friends, Thom, Eric and I are spending more time here this trip eliminating the need for a schedule.

I’ve spent more time as a visitor in Paris than any other city outside of the US. And except for their yearly trip to Taiwan, I can say the same for Thom and Eric.

There’s a certain feel to the city; a lightness of step that occurs in Springtime with the mixture of days (cloudy with a bit of a chill and the threat of rain that doesn’t quite materialize; overcast but comfortable; sunny and warm where everyone is out lounging in the parks or sitting for hours in cafés).

There’s a certain aroma to Paris as well. And with Spring, it’s a mixture of Hyacinth and Narcissus. The climbing vines of Clematis contribute, although you can’t ignore the beauty of Wisteria. This fragrant Paris combines the floral with the open doors of the boulangeries, with the scent of freshly baked baguettes, croissants and Pain au Chocolat, among others.

Flowers of Paris

Flowers of Paris

Parc du Passy

Parc du Passy

A word of caution, however … you don’t want to walk too far down the Metro platform as the Paris air changes substantially!

Several years before my first trip to Paris, I was visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art and on permanent display was a Readymade  from 1919 by artist, Marcel Duchamp titled 50 cc air de Paris. The glass ampoule was purchased by Duchamp in Paris and presented to Walter Arensberg as a gift. Some would find it difficult to define this piece as art, and others would question whether it still contains Paris air, since it was, in fact, broken in 1949 and repaired in the US by the artist. However, I thought the piece completely innovative and filled with humor. I have loved Marcel Duchamp ever since.

Springtime in Paris is the very best. The sites, sounds and smells tug at you from every direction and pull you into the world.

Shortly after our arrival, we met up with our friend, Tracy, who was meeting her sister for some shopping before heading to Berlin for the weekend. Tracy treated us to a fantastic lunch at Chef Antoine Westermann’s Drouant. Not too far from L’Opera, this exquisite restaurant that serves traditional French cuisine is located at 16-18, place Gaillon 75002 Paris (Tél : +33 1 42 65 15 16).

I ordered Des coquilles Saint-Jacques poêlées with Une fricassée de légumes printaniers. The scallops were prepared to perfection and the vegetables practically melted in your mouth.

Lunch at Drouant

Lunch at Drouant

Tracy’s dessert of a dark chocolate “pot de creme,” was part of her plat complet. So Thom, Eric and I decided to split two desserts … or so we thought! We ordered Les 4 grands classiques and Les 4 chocolats. Seriously, we made the assumption that these would each be four small portions on one plate. Quelle surprise when they showed up as full size portions! Each as good as the next, they tempted us to finish them all without success. But, we gave it our best effort.

Table of desserts

Table of desserts

It was a marvelous afternoon, arriving at the restaurant around 12:45 (early for Parisians) and departing after 3:00. The local rush came and went, but we lingered on enjoying the food and the fabulous company. It was a wonderful day and it was great to spend it in Paris with Tracy!

Later in the week, on a cool, overcast day, we crossed the Grenelle Bridge and entered the Île des Cygnes, an island in the middle of the river Seine. On this island facing West toward the Atlantic Ocean and its “larger sister” is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. And, toward the other end of this small island is a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower.

Ile des Cygnes

Ile des Cygnes

Thom generally goes out early and gets fresh croissants for breakfast. We purchased some locally made confiture d’abricot and figured out how to work the espresso machine. We are spending our days walking the city, strolling through parks and going to local markets where we’re purchasing produce and fresh fish and cooking our dinner at “home.” Fabulous Bordeaux’s costing approximately $6.00 accompany the meal and freshly made baguettes and cheeses from our local Fromager follow our dinner completing our days.

Today being Sunday, most shops are closed. After a late breakfast, and a short walk around the neighborhood, we’re relaxing and playing Mah Jongg. C’est magnifique!