Rhinoceros is among the first five prints created by Peterdi at Atelier 17. They were all line engravings, which was the medium the print workshop was intent on reviving after more than a century of artistic disfavor.

Peterdi’s Rhinoceros, whose hind legs have transformed into chaos, is in line with Surrealism, whose leading practitioners in Paris—Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Raoul Ubac, and Yves Tanguy—all frequented Atelier 17 in the 1930s.