Starting Black History month with Head of an Algerian (Moorish Prince) might not be the best idea.

The New Britain Museum of American Art kicked off their 2018 Black History Month social media campaign by tweeting this painting and, well, idk how alright that is. Moor in Spanish is moro or moro, which is slang for dark-skinned and Muslim folks (which came out of the violent and wildly racist inquisition) as well as an idiom for being in a bad mood in Spain, and slang for kiddos in Mexico. On all counts not the most respectful thing to call a fella. Not to mention that orientalism is definitely not the best way for a museum express solidarity with black folks. That said, Nourse treats her subject with tenderness and respect. She places the subject above the viewer’s eye level, makes his clothes look fresh, and his cigarette posture is almost as aloof as Jean Paul Belmondo’s. She’s definitely trying to make him look fly.

She probably painted this prince on a trip to the “Nice of Algiers,” Biskra, during a three month stay in Algeria. This was the height of orientalist painting’s popularity in France so people went wild for it at the time. She exhibited it at the Société des peintres orientalistes français which would never exist now, unless you’re trying to throw shade at Hollywood for being a wee bit racist like all the time you’re nothing but an Orientalists’ Society, looking at you especially Ben Affleck! But nobody thought orientalism was bad at the time, like how the Met bought Ingres’s Grande Odalisque even though it’s both misogynistic and fetishizing the exoticism of the “orient.” But you know, the line between celebration and fetish is pretty fine, I guess, if you have bad eyesight or something.

Anyway Nourse described North Africa as “the land of sunshine and flowers and lovely Arabs.” And maybe we wouldn’t say “Arabs” these days (because the Arabian peninsula is like 2000 miles further east), but isn’t she sweet? Like so kind. Yes, this piece plays up the prince’s otherness, but he looks more like a Algerian Steve McQueen than the Sheik of Araby and it’s way less mail-order-spouse than Ingres, so it’s got that going for it. Elizabeth Nourse then is the grandma that asks if your cousin is “homosexual” and you’re like Grandma nobody really says it like that anymore, but ya she’s gay.