Ha, Garth, a funny thing happened when I looked in my mailbox: I read your post, which of course had no images, and immediately I visualized the exact Vermeer you put up here. When I went on the Forum, there it was! That one has always been my favorite. The diagonal of the red hat is so daring, but I think it's the lighting and the shine on her open mouth that really grabs me. I feel like Vermeer did something daring when he painted that portrait: he saw a vision and had to paint it, even though it was a departure from his usual color and lighting.
Steven, I think your point about visual and psychological depth is brilliant. Of course we all have different taste and different reactions to the same painting, but I can definitely relate to what you are saying. The value contrast and maybe a crisply-painted edge near the focal point is something I've been paying more attention to lately.
There are so many Sargents with this "retina-burn" factor that it's hard to pick a couple. Here's a link to my husband's all-time favorite, Asher Wertheimer. Not only does Mr. Wertheimer look like his Uncle Alan, he says it makes him feel like his Uncle Alan is about to walk out of the canvas and say hello:
http://www.jssgallery.org/Essay/Arti...998-Left2.html
My favorite of Sargent's is the Boit Children, probably because I first walked into the room where it was hanging in the Boston museum when I was a college student. I knew very little about Sargent and this absolutely took my breath away. First of all, it's really big, 87" x 87", and it has an incredible sense of atmosphere and depth. I felt like I could walk into it, or that I was being pulled into it! It fueled my ambition to someday learn how to paint atmosphere.