Parisian with a high comb

Lovis Corinth's Parisian with a High Comb (1886) documents the specific fashions of mid-1880s Paris — the high decorative comb worn in the hair was a characteristic Parisian fashion accessory of the period. Corinth's eye for fashion detail alongside his interest in physiognomy gives this Paris period portrait its specific historical character. The high comb as portrait accessory adds both decorative interest and social specificity — marking the sitter as a Parisian woman of fashion rather than a generic female subject.

The high comb provides Corinth with both compositional interest — the ornament's height extending the portrait's vertical dimension — and the technical challenge of rendering decorative objects alongside the face with equal but differentiated attention. His Paris training served him well here: careful tonal modeling of the face combined with more decorative treatment of the ornament and dress. His palette is warm and observational, the specific quality of Parisian light on a fashionable interior subject.