Apprenticed at the age of sixteen to Tasset, a renowned medal engraver, Joseph Ernest Ménétrier took drawing classes and, after completing his military service, spent four years at an art school. At twenty-three, he was committed to the Ville-Évrard psychiatric hospital for “manic excitement” and he would remain there for the rest of his life.
Ten years after his admission, he began an extensive body of work, signing under the pseudonym Émile Josome Hodinos. He produced a large number of ink and graphite drawings, most of which have since disappeared. These works, conceived as singular, dreamlike copies of medals and incorporating all their characteristic features (images, exergues, mottos, ornamental elements), form a veritable encyclopedia, an inventory of vices and virtues, by describing human anatomy, postures, clothing, domestic objects, etc.