His portraits have an approachable aspect, an easy intimacy, that reminds me of Mary Cassatt’s work.
Also similar to Cassatt, Romney’s figures have a luminous quality from deep within. Look at them. Don’t many of the figures look like delicate lamps? It’s a creative way to feature them without using too many distracting colors.
His painting technique looks somewhat similar to the eggshell tempera Dutch method of Jan Van Eck, but with heavy applications of paint.
Almost an impasto manner as seen on the faces.
Eggshell tempera is really hard. You build up the shadows backwards. The great thing about the lab class was that we were made to create pieces in every technique we studied.