Sir Robert Kite (c.1708–1772), Lord Mayor of London (1766)

Sir Robert Kite served as Lord Mayor of London in 1766, during the politically turbulent period when John Wilkes's radical agitation and the Stamp Act crisis were making London the center of constitutional controversy. The Lord Mayor's office gave its holder a platform for political intervention, and civic leaders like Kite occupied the intersection of commercial interest and political action that made the City of London a force distinct from Westminster. Dance's portrait of the Lord Mayor in formal civic dress—chain of office, robes—documents the visual vocabulary through which civic authority was represented in Georgian London's portrait culture.

The mayoral portrait follows the formal conventions of civic portraiture, with Kite depicted in the robes and chain of office that identified his position. Dance's controlled technique renders the elaborate ceremonial dress with professional competence.