The Portrait is a comprehensive package of informatiobn about Humanity at any given time: the look of the people; the fashion of the times; what was held as important, often conveyed by elements contained in the composition, surrounding the subject; the state of the technology available to the artist (the development of new paints, new colors, new forms of reproduction); all reveal more than just the face of the sitter. In the book Van Gogh, Face to Face published by Thames and Hudson, in an essay by Judy Sund, discussing this very topic, she says , on pg 183 - 184: The most important model for this portrait based representation of an epoch was his Dutch antecedent Frans Hals, an artist who, according to Van Gogh, achieved the " simple great truth " that he was after: " the painting of Humanity, or rather a whole republic, by the simple means of portraiture ".