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Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761–1804) was raised as part of an aristocratic family in Georgian Britain. She was born in the Caribbean in 1761, the illegitimate daughter of a black woman named Maria Bell and naval officer Sir John Lindsay.
Dido spent much of her life at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath in North London. She lived there with her great-uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice. He presided over a number of court cases that examined the legality of the slave trade.
The only known portrait of Dido Belle, showing her with her cousin and close companion, Lady Elizabeth Murray, at Kenwood
The portrait of the two women is highly unusual in 18th-century British art for showing a black woman as the near equal of her white companion, rather than as a servant or slave. Dido’s aristocratic upbringing is apparent in her expensive silk gown and pearl necklace.
However, art historians have noted that her race is still a feature of the painting. Symbols of exoticism: the fruit she carries and the turban on her head suggest that while Dido may not be a servant, she is considered different from her more conventionally styled white cousin.
