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The man in ornate clothing is distinguished by an air of thoughtful nonchalance. Mathilde Battenberg painted this portrait in a single sitting. The subject was first identified only recently as Peter Carl Mackay, who was 34 at the time.
Under the pseudonym “Ras Prince Monolulu” he appeared in the scintillating role of an Ethiopian prince. With his gaily colored costume—later also including elaborate feather decoration—he deliberately catered to the racist cliches of his time while at the same time poking fun at them.
His checkered biography took him from his native St Croix (an island in the Caribbean) across Europe.Whether as a paid model at art schools, peanut trader, circus performer in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, or, ultimately, tipster at the major English horse races, Peter Mackay gained increasing fame. He made cleverly playful use of the colonial fantasies abounding in his European surroundings.