When we first posted the painting of the “Happy Negro (Au Nègre Joyeux)” above #12 Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter, we were (admittedly) less well-versed in French history than we are now, and there were some wonderful comments on the article from readers situating the historical artifact properly. There was also a fun comment that the very building was mentioned in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway: “Music came out of the Negre Joyeux. Through the window of the Café Aux Amateurs I saw the long zinc bar.” The same café is mentioned in A Moveable Feast as well. In the 2nd arrondissement on Rue Montorgueil, a popular street in Paris, is another relic of France’s colonial past, labeled “Au Planteur Aucune Succursale,” showing a similar subject. It is important to note that words like negre were not originally pejorative in France and scenes like those depicted here, while shocking to tourists today, were…