My view of Negative space in portraits.

In my brief vacation in Salzburg-Austria I found this Cafe that had these amazing portraits hung up. I was deeply impressed to see how the artist played with the negative space of the face's shadows with vibrant uncommon colours for the human skin. I believe that in a portrait, the eyes are the positive and focus point, as it represents the soul of the whole painting. I believe that the artist managed to keep the soul intact while everything was still held in a harmonious balance.