This re-creation of pays homage to artist Théodore Géricault’s moving "Study of a Model," thought to depict a man named Joseph. Who was Joseph? Documentation on Joseph’s life is thin and doesn’t record his full name, but scattered 19th-century accounts indicate that he was born around 1793 in Saint-Domingue (today, Haiti). As a young man he emigrated to France, finding work in an acrobatic troupe in Paris. He captured the attention of Géricault, who recruited him as a model. Joseph most famously posed for the signaling man at the apex of the colossal shipwreck scene "The Raft of the Medusa" at museelouvre. This painting is one of the many studies Gericault executed in preparation for that epic project. By the early 1830s Joseph had become a model at France’s premier art school, the École des beaux-arts. A reporter remarked that there wasn't a single painter or sculptor who didn’t know Joseph, "the most beautiful model to have made the rounds of the studios in Paris." We invited pe...