Roofs of Paris

Roofs of Paris draws on Hamaguchi's decades of residence in the city and his sustained interest in architectural subjects as alternatives to the still-life objects that dominate his output. A rooftop view of Haussmann-era buildings—zinc mansard roofs, chimney stacks, dormer windows—offered a geometric subject well-suited to the mezzotint's capacity for rendering varied surface textures: the dull matte of aged zinc, the regular pattern of slate tiles, the irregular profiles of chimney pots against the sky. Hamaguchi likely approached the composition from an upper-floor vantage point, as was common in Montparnasse or similar neighborhoods where artists maintained studios. The absence of figures keeps the composition in the realm of architectural study rather than urban genre. Rooftop subjects had a long precedent in printmaking traditions Hamaguchi would have known, from Meryon's Paris etchings to the modernist urban prints produced by École de Paris printmakers. His treatment, filtered through the mezzotint's characteristic tonality, replaces Meryon's gothic drama with a quieter, more observational attention to surface and light.