Din, Une Trés Belle Négresse 1

In this photograph, Mickalene Thomas captured the strength of the woman’s gaze, her halo of dark hair, and her made-up lips. The vibrant patterns of her dress and the wall textile background compliment her features. The model, Din, was a medical student who regularly posed for Thomas, yet the portrait depicts a character created by the artist through her staging of the setting and costume. Thus, the image becomes a more universal representation of a woman exuding sensual beauty, confidence, and self-awareness. Thomas’s title, French for "Din, A Very Beautiful Black Woman," acknowledges an earlier era with its use of the historically charged term “négresse.” Yet the title demonstrates a desire to create empowering associations with such words. In particular, Thomas employed a visual vocabulary that looks back to the 1970s—an era defined by powerful new images of Black beauty found in popular media.