![]() Same-sex attraction exists, but only for men, and it must be suppressed, relegated to coy conversations in the all-male social clubs one notable exception being a glimpse of Henry Granville embracing his male lover, clothes off, at one of the wild parties the artist likes to host at his studio. The female characters, when not matronly, are either naïve virgins (the debutantes) or lustful exotics (Siena Rosso, Anthony’s opera-singing mistress, and Madame Delacroix, the alluring dressmaker). Its treatment of women, unfortunately, remains mired in outdated stereotypes. The resulting composite image transforms an actual portrait of an enslaved artist into an imaginary one of a Black aristocrat, presumably meant to represent one of the Queen’s ancestors.Įnglish society in Bridgerton assumes racial harmony, however idealistically. On-screen, his head and collar have been digitally superimposed on a three-quarter-length figure facing left. It is an illuminating inclusion: Pareja, of mixed race, was an enslaved assistant in the artist’s studio. ![]() In a striking example, Queen Charlotte sits before a portrait based on Diego Velázquez’s celebrated likeness of Juan de Pareja. The show’s production designers have created portraits of Black aristocrats to hang alongside well-known paintings of white nobles by artists like Anthony van Dyck and Thomas Gainsborough. The paintings gracing the walls of the Queen’s splendid residences are also diverse. Indeed, the interracial romance of the main protagonists, Daphne Bridgerton and Simon, Duke of Hastings, is the least scandalous aspect of their relationship. It imagines that “ England’s first Black queen” has integrated British society and that racial equality is an accepted fact of life. ![]() The show’s novel concept centers on the question of Queen Charlotte’s biracial identity. Art, and how the characters engage with it, underscore the racial and sexual politics that drive the show’s narrative. Set in early 19th-century England, the series focuses on the high-born Bridgerton family as its eldest daughter navigates the complex rituals of the 1813 debutante season.
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