Rabbit, 1955

Dated 1955, this rabbit mezzotint places the work in Hamaguchi's early Paris period, when he was developing his color mezzotint technique through sustained experimentation. By 1955 he had been working in France for several years and was beginning to attract attention from critics and collectors who recognized his revival of a medium largely dormant since the eighteenth century. An animal subject in this period would have served as a formal study: the rabbit's rounded body volume, textured coat, and large dark eyes were well-suited to demonstrating the mezzotint's tonal range, from the black ground of the rocked plate through intermediate grays to the bright highlights achieved by polishing the copper with a burnisher. The 1955 date connects this work to the foundational period of Hamaguchi's technical investigation, before his approach had fully consolidated into the signature restraint of his later decades. The rabbit may be among his earliest sustained engagements with animal form, representing a category of subject he would return to alongside insects and botanical specimens.