The Raft of the Medusa

The highest figure on the raft, balanced on the shoulders of two others and waving a piece of cloth toward an almost invisible rescue ship on the horizon, is a Black man. Géricault hired a Haitian-born model named Joseph and placed him at the apex of the composition. Slavery had been abolished in France in 1794, restored under Napoleon, abolished again in 1815. Géricault was an abolitionist. The hope of the painting is delivered by a former slave's hand. Now at Musée du Louvre, Paris @museelouvre