This painting is the final one seen in the 2013 film BELLE. This painting is shockingly different than the ones previously seen in the film, with powerful appeal and intriguing details, as Dido is portrayed as being equally noble as her cousin, wearing expensive ostrich feathers, which is in marked contrast to the usual subservient poses of black people in paintings of the era. The picture shows the closeness between Dido and her cousin, despite the position of blacks in Britain at the time. Dido is carrying a plate of fruit which makes the portrait look very natural, playful and affectionate. The painting is famous among art lovers as one of the first European portraits to depict a black person as equal to a white or on an equal eye-line. It's not even clear who painted it but it is clear Mansfield commissioned it, which would have been a brave act for the time and place. Amma Asante, the director of Belle, explains why the painting inspired her film: "You see a biracial girl, a woman of colour, who's depicted slightly higher than her white counterpart. She's staring directly out, with a very confident eye. This painting flipped tradition and everything the 18th century told us about portraiture. What I saw was an opportunity to tell a story that would combine art history and politics."
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