His school is leading the project as part of an effort to “reconstruct these black people from Brazilian history who over time became whitened or had their work forgotten,” he said. “I think this project shows just how deep and powerful racism can be, but also the importance and necessity of recognizing black culture not just for the black community, but for all humanity. I think it’s necessary for our country — Brazil — to know itself.”

The university worked with Grey, who contracted historians to ensure the accuracy of the image and then managed the marketing and rollout of the project. Called Machado de Assis Real (The Real Machado de Assis), it encourages readers to download and print the new image and features posts on Instagram of students pasting it on top of existing ones in their books, along with the hashtag #machadodeassisreal.

The next goal, said Adriano Matos, chief creative officer at Grey, is to replace Machado’s portrait at the Brazilian Academy of Letters, of which the novelist was the founding president. The academy’s current president met with project leaders in May to receive the new portrait, which now hangs in the academy.

Matos hopes that publishers will begin to use the new image on book covers. “Our goal is that one day you can go onto Google image search and only see images of Machado de Assis as a black man,” he said.

At least one small Brazilian publisher, Mâle, has committed to publishing Machado’s work with the new portrait. Publishing houses in the United States, like the Norton imprint Liveright, which publishes the author’s works in translation, said they had not heard of the project but would be open to considering a new portrait.