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They painted monuments to their sitters! I've been since on the lookout for that phenomenon on contemporary paintings and see it here to your credit.
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Deladier,
Thank you for your generous observations on my portrait. I am humbled by your words.
My heroes are also Hals, Van Dyke, Rembrandt, as well as the Russians, Kramskoi and Repin.
The most incredible aspect of Kramskoi's paintings were his exquisite conservation of composition. There was never anything that could be added in his portraits to make them stronger, and nothing that could be removed without making the painting weaker. He stunned me with his ability to have the composition be just a standing figure, and still make you cry.
I noticed a few years back that a lot of contemporary corporate portraits have a lot of stuff in them, chairs, plants, books. When I observed these Kramskoi portraits, as well as many of the Sargent male portraits, I was knocked out by the dual challenges of making the composition work when it is so simple, and putting 100% of the strength and attention towards the subject. Make him massive, solid, powerful ... in your words....monumental!
The most magnificent line I have ever seen is the silhouette on a 3/4 male portrait of Ivan Shishkin by Kramskoi. (I'll see if I can find it and post it.) When I saw that line, I knew I had to learn from Kramskoi, and started a ten year study of his work. (This is where I found out about sauce.) These observations you have made about the portraits at the museum are the templates I have also used to develop my portraits. You have described what I am after in my portraits.
As a continuation to the comments made on your Max thread, when you make the connection that you can also do what was done in the paintings of Bouguereau, Hals, and Sargent...that they live on and are there to teach you from their own work, your education is only limited to the amount of time you take to study.
Peggy