Throughout the long practice of portraiture, two dominant stylistic approaches have shaped the flow of history. One very influential school has been that of the concealed brushstroke, wherein the artist seeks to render his image with a careful and polished technique — with the final results achieved through a build-up of layers of work. A competing approach has challenged artists to attempt the achievement of their ultimate results in a direct attack on the canvas, in which the image begins to take on its final look with the very first strokes of color. Obvious exemplars of the former would be Holbein, David and Ingres. Examples of the latter, or premier coup technique are the objects of this essay.

Seventeenth Century

A remarkable recent book, Velázquez: The Technique of Genius,* reports the results of x-ray tests on the great Spanish master's work. It appears that Velázquez executed his works either directly on the ground of the canvas or on a thinly-applied underpainting tone. For the most part, the painting is comprised of fluid washes of color, with very little body. One noted critic, on first seeing the great masterpiece La Mesninas in the original, asked, incredulously, "Where is the painting?"

The emotional power of Velázquez's work has been extraordinarily potent down through the centuries. The simple diagram on this page is intended to emphasize the direct way in which the baton of premier coup directness has been passed along, from Seventeenth Century Madrid, Amsterdam and London right into our own era, where it constitutes a very dominant theme in contemporary portraiture, both in America and abroad.

Note how closely contemporary or the dates of Velázquez, Van Dyck and Hals. These three towering masters, each working separately in the widely separated worlds of Spain, Holland and England, were all developing a decisive premier coup technique. Their work is so stylistically related that one might even expect the three to have emerged from the same atelier.

It is instructive to analyze the brushwork in the three masterpieces which are reproduced here. The Velázquez painting, which may be examined in New York's Metropolitan Museum, never fails to astonish artists who study it. The realism is so breathtaking — the subject appears about to move and speak — that is hard to accept the extreme simplicity with which the artist achieved his effects. To quote authors Jonathan Brown and Carmen Garrido:

"Velázquez's technique evolved towards greater simplification and rapidity of execution. Unlike the majority of contemporary painters in Spain, Velázquez did not base his method on superimposing layers of color, but rather devised a sustained way to reach the desired effects. His rapid, precise touches of the brush and his diluted pigments allowed him to set artistic goals which other painters could scarcely envision. While taking whatever was useful from the traditional techniques, he executed his pictures with a self-conscious artistry in which every detail, however small it might be, is given due weight in the final composition. All his strategies are directed by specific pictorial intentions. In creating his pictures he employs a variety of brushstrokes — long, short, or medium; loose or precise as a miniaturist — always aiming for the most efficient way to produce what he wants us to see; his palette is limited, his touch, quick and sure."

The Hals painting goes far beyond the Velázquez in its perfection of detail. Seeing this painting (or any Hals) in reproduction is always misleading. The effects that seem photographic in their perfection when viewed in a small color plate are quite the opposite when observed in the original. That intricate detail of embroidery in the sleeve — while very precisely observed — is rendered with great freedom and directness. That intricate detailing in the lace — while drawn with unsurpassed exactitude — is nonetheless executed with a superb sureness. There is nothing labored or over refined here! Author Rockwell Kent pays a delightful tribute to Hals in his popular book World-Famous Paintings:*

"Many have been the painters who worship at the altar of Frans Hals. And with what dismal results! Worship inspired imitation; imitation brought forth artistic atrocities.

Hals used a technique so intimately related to his personality than an attempt to copy his style is like trying to acquire angelic virtues by wearing wings. Virtuosity can be repeated. Hals had more than simple virtuosity. He had character and a unique personality, and expressed both forcefully.

The poor souls who sit and waste their days copying old masters in dimly lit museums, measuring distances and mixing pigments with infinite perfection — let them copy Hals! Square inch by square inch, compare closely the copied color and brushstrokes. Miraculously accurate — the original seems reborn. But placed the copy beside the true picture and stand back. Then look, and look hard. The gulf is as wide as the difference between life and death. For Hals had the world's most fluent brush and a warm, probing, adventurous spirit. Art hasn't had such a mixture since his time."

Anthony Van Dyck was born in Antwerp in 1599, the same year as Velázquez. He became a favorite pupil of Peter Paul Rubens. Like Velázquez, he became a favored court painter at an early age. In 1620, at the age of 21, he went to London at the request of Charles I. He thereafter was painter-in-ordinary to the king and a favorite of English society. He died of overwork at forty-two. This stately portrait of the Duke of Richmond shows classical grand manner portraiture at its very highest and best. The figure is both elegant and natural. While aristocratic and commanding, the figure is nonetheless that of a very real and believable human being. The dog is a marvel of draftsmanship and tonal observation.

Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The Eighteenth Century was a glorious era for English portraiture. Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum's famous Gallery 14 (Eighteenth Century English portraits) are overwhelmed by the visual feast the room affords. Before an incredible array of artistic greatness, the viewer is surrounded by masterpieces by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Raeburn, Lawrence, Romney and Hoppner. But even amid such a powerhouse display of genius, the works of Raeburn and Lawrence stand out. The work of Sir Henry Raeburn is noteworthy for its exceptionally strong handling of light and shade. The brushstrokes are broad and sure. The forms thus rendered exist with a solidity and volume rarely equaled and never surpassed in painting. No wonder that the youthful John Singer Sargent traveled to Edinburgh to make careful copies of Raeburn's work.

Catherine Baetjer, curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, gives this vivid description of Raeburn's portrayal of the Lord Robertson:**

"A sharp light illumines the wig and brow, throwing the sitter's nose into relief while carving out the bony structure of the right side of his face with the deep shadow. Raeburn attacks the drapery and ribbons with a flurry of varicolored strokes — red, salmon, white, and pure black — which suggests the dense textures, pliability, and brilliance of the materials. In the abstractions of his patterns as well as the sensuous qualities of his pigment, Raeburn was ahead of his time."

In 1792, Thomas Lawrence succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds as principal painter to the King of England, George III. In 1815, Lawrence painted a series of twenty European heads of state who had been allied with Britain in the defeat of Napoleon. This work established Lawrence as the leading portraitist in Europe. In 1820, he was elected president of the Royal Academy. He died in 1830, at the age of 61, covered with honors. Lawrence's portraits are beautifully conceived, elegant and atmospheric, very pleasing in color. His sureness, as well as delicacy, with tonal values make his paintings of great interest to other painters.

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The advent of the international Impressionist movement gave added impetus to the premier coup style. The American ex-patriot John Singer Sargent was a colossus astride the art world of two continents. His dazzling painterly style influenced several generations of artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, along with Giovanni Boldini, are the chief practitioners of the Sargentesque bravura manner in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century and the beginning of the Twentieth. Sargent's style and conceptions continue to influence portraiture in contemporary America and Europe.

During the latter third of the Nineteenth Century there arose a worldwide interest in direct stroke (premier coup) painting. The leading practitioners of this historic style were doubtless stimulated by the accelerating Impressionist movement. It was entirely reasonable to expect that the Impressionists' experiments with rapid visual effects and broken color would fuel the premier coup tradition. Another influence was undeniably the rise of the new invention of photography. While many of the Impressionists may have disdained the incorporation of photographic aids into their work, it is incontrovertible that the new medium of photography was stimulating new ways of seeing the visual world.

The young American expatriate John Singer Sargent burst onto the international art scene in 1884 by exhibiting his eyebrow-raising Portrait of Madame Pierre Gautreau (later Madame X) at the Paris salon of that year. This summary from the dust jacket of the recent biography by Trevor Fairbrother:***

"Throughout his life, Sargent painted portraits of famous beauties, celebrities, politicians and bluebloods on both sides of the Atlantic. From the onset of his career he astonished critics and patrons alike with his extraordinary virtuosity in the handling of paint; he combined stylish bravura with incisive realistic powers of observation, and was widely hailed as a modern heir to Velázquez. The writer Henry James, a friend of the artist, said that Sargent's portraits possessed 'a knockdown insolence of talent and truth of characterization."

The youthful Sargent enrolled in the Parisian atelier of the fashionable portraitist Carolus-Duran, where the twin emphases were directness of brushwork plus a careful study of tonal values. In her thoughtful book Interpreting Sargent,**** author and critic Elizabeth Prettejohn writes:

"Sargent did not follow the Impressionists' experiments in replacing the traditional academic organization by tonal values, that is shades of light and dark, with a system of contrast by color alone. In its adherence to a strong tonal structure his paintings might be said to have remained conservative throughout his life. But Sargent's elaboration of tonality as the basic principle of pictorial design went beyond its role in traditional academic procedure. Carolus did not permit his students to draw their designs beforehand but encourage them to began by brushing the basic tonal relationships in flowing paint, directly on the canvas surface."

Sargent's towering success and influence were felt all around the world. In America, an entire generation of artists fell under his spell, with some very fine work being done in the Sargent matter. The Philadelphia artist says Cecilia Beaux produced many brilliant portraits with a Sargentesque flair. In New York, Irving Ramsey Wiles was a leading exponent of the Sargent school. William Merritt Chase escaped from Sargent dominance by virtue of his own strong personality and talent.

In Europe also, artists were working in the Sargent manner. In Sweden, Anders Zorn was painting beautiful, flowing compositions. From Italy, the extraordinary Giovanni Boldini was an international success with his flamboyant style. And in Spain, Sorolla was painting the brilliant light and color of his native land with a bold, unerring technique. In Russia, the great Ilya Repin was teaching a generation of young artists to paint with vigor and decisiveness, with Valentin Serov and Nicolai Fechin among his outstanding disciples. In Britain, Augustus John began to create strikingly original portraits in an impressionistic style, as did William Orpen and others.

It is now nearly four hundred years since Velázquez had spread those "fluid washes of color." The dramatic premier coup tradition was flourishing, and still being enthusiastically passed on to future generations.

* World-Famous Paintings, edited by Rockwell Kent. Wise and Company, Publishers, New York, 1939.

** British Portraits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Katherine Baetjer. The Metropolitan Museum
of Art Bulletin, Summer 1999.

*** John Singer Sargent, by Trevor Fairbrother. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, in association with
The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994.

**** Interpreting Sargent, by Elizabeth Prettejohn. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, 1998.