Synopsis

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould explore the provenance of two paintings by anonymous artists, both crafted during the 18th and 19th centuries. Remarkably, these works feature Black subjects, a departure from the norms of their time. One is a portrait of Dido Belle, the celebrated former slave who was raised within a prominent English aristocratic household in the 1760s. The other depicts two children set against a tropical vista and is thought to have been created as an indictment of the slave trad