Manet revolutionised portraiture at the end of the 19th Century by refusing to conform to the traditional method of modelling facial form.  Until he came along a portrait artist would cast a strong light upon their sitter (thus also creating strong shade) and then laboriously mix their skin tone, half tone, highlights, shadow edge, shadows and deep shadows (see the egg demo below that I give to my portrait classes).  This creates drama, which I personally love, but I’m still glad Manet came...

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