Richard Prince's Nurse Paintings, produced between 2002 and 2008, represent a pivotal exploration of themes central to his oeuvre, such as appropriation, gender roles, and the critique of popular culture. These works were initially exhibited to considerable acclaim at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York in 2003 and have since been regarded as some of Prince's most significant contributions to contemporary art.

The Nurse Paintings are inspired by the covers of mid-20th-century pulp romance novels, featuring stereotypical images of women in the role of nurses embroiled in melodramatic love affairs. Prince appropriated these images, scanning the original book covers and then overlaying them with layers of acrylic paint. This process allowed him to both pay homage to and subvert the original artworks, playing with notions of identity, desire, and narrative through the figure of the nurse, often depicted with obscured faces or masked, adding an element of mystery and anonymity.

One of the hallmark pieces from this series is "Park Avenue Nurse" (2002), which showcases a nurse character enveloped in a "sensual haze of midnight blue dispelling into ashen white," highlighting Prince's ability to intertwine seduction and subversion. The protagonist in this series is both alluring and enigmatic, embodying Prince's complex engagement with issues of authorship and authenticity. By removing or altering significant parts of the original narrative and visual elements, Prince transforms the nurses into subjects of contemporary art critique, exploring how societal and cultural values are constructed and disseminated through popular media.

In creating the Nurse Paintings, Prince also delves into broader themes within his work, including the manipulation of appropriated images, the glamorization of certain societal roles through mass media, and the mythologizing of gender constructs. The series interrogates the portrayal of women and femininity, engaging in a dialogue with earlier artistic explorations of similar themes by artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, as well as the genre of Abstract Expressionism, through the use of bold brushstrokes and a vibrant palette.

The Nurse Paintings not only showcase Prince's innovative use of appropriation as a tool for artistic exploration but also offer a poignant critique of the ways in which desire, identity, and gender roles are constructed and perpetuated in society. By repurposing and recontextualizing familiar images from pop culture, Prince challenges viewers to reconsider the narratives and stereotypes that pervade our collective consciousness​ (Sothebys.com)​​ (Minnie Muse)​​ (Sothebys.com)​.