Thomas Raikes (1741–1813), Governor of the Bank of England (1797–1799)

Thomas Raikes served as Governor of the Bank of England from 1797 to 1799, and George Romney's 1787 portrait, now in the Bank of England Museum, predates that governorship by a decade, capturing Raikes as a senior merchant and banker rather than as the institution's chief officer. The Bank of England Museum's collection of portraits of its governors and directors constitutes one of the most coherent documents of British mercantile and financial power in the long eighteenth century. Romney's portrait of Raikes takes its place in this tradition: a serious, composed likeness of a man whose authority derived from commercial competence and financial trustworthiness rather than military achievement or aristocratic birth. The early 1787 date places the portrait during Romney's most productive decade, when he was working at extraordinary speed and consistently high quality. The banking world's patronage of Romney reflects the broadening of portrait commissioning beyond the traditional aristocratic market.

Romney applies his standard vocabulary for professional male subjects: the face is the composition's centre of gravity, handled with careful tonal precision; the dark coat and neutral background are managed efficiently without elaborate description. The overall effect is of serious respectability — the qualities the Bank of England required in its public face and the qualities Romney reliably delivered.