Scott Allan detail Manet's Portrait of Madame Brunet, which recently entered the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Allan notes that the painting "[calls] to mind 17th- and 18th-century examples of the Spanish, Flemish, and English schools… For all the veiled quotation in Manet's portrait, however, the signature elements of his original style are blazingly evident: in the brilliant summary execution of the mesmerizing gloves, the subtle wielding of a nuanced range of blacks in the dress, the sharp silhouetting of contours, and in the radical suppression of half-tones and shadows on the pale oval expanse of Mme. Brunet’s strongly lit face."