ABSTRACT
This chapter juxtaposes two European portraits: the 1779 painting featuring Afro-British aristocrat Dido Elizabeth Belle, which currently hangs at the Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland, and the 1800 painting of Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait d’une Negresse, which hangs at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, and whose subject has recently been identified by the name of Madeleine. I delve into the histories behind each portrait while attempting to examine how their histories get reframed in such contemporary Black feminist projects as Amma Asante’s film Belle (2014), the artworks of Ayana V. Jackson and Elizabeth Colomba, and the music-video art of pop star Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z.
