Bartholomew Burton (c.1695–1770), Governor of the Bank of England (1760–1762)

This portrait of Bartholomew Burton, Governor of the Bank of England, depicts one of the most powerful financiers in Georgian London. The Bank of England governed the nation's monetary policy, making its governors among the most influential figures in British public life. Dance's portraits combined the formal conventions of Grand Manner portraiture with a cooler, more austere palette and sculptural figure treatment that reflected his years studying in Rome under the influence of Pompeo Batoni.

The financial portrait renders Burton with the authoritative dignity appropriate to the head of Britain's central bank, Dance's measured technique conveying both institutional gravity and personal character.