Umbrellas

A painting in two styles

On a rainy Paris street, a crowd raises blue-grey umbrellas. Pierre-Auguste Renoir began The Umbrellas around 1881 and finished it several years later, around 1885 to 1886. In between, his style changed, and both styles are visible in one canvas.

The painting belongs to the National Gallery in London, from the Lane Bequest, and is shared with Dublin.

A canopy of umbrellas

The umbrellas form a ceiling of overlapping blue-grey shapes at the top of the picture. They were painted later, in firmer, smoother strokes, reflecting Renoir’s new, more linear style.

A young woman without an umbrella

At the left, a young woman with a hatbox, often identified as a milliner, looks out at us. She has no umbrella. A man behind her seems about to offer his. Her face and dress are painted with sharper outlines.

She carries a large hatbox on her arm, a sign of her work.

Little girls painted in the earlier style

At the right, a little girl with a hoop and a woman in a feathered hat belong to the earlier campaign of painting. They are rendered in soft, feathery Impressionist strokes, in contrast with the left side.

Questions about The Umbrellas

Why does it look like two styles?

Renoir painted it in two stages, around 1881 and around 1885 to 1886, and changed his style in between.

Where is it?

The National Gallery, London (Lane Bequest).

Who is the woman on the left?

Often identified as a milliner carrying a hatbox.

How large is it?

About 180 × 115 centimetres, oil on canvas.

Sources and image credit

• The National Gallery, London: The Umbrellas
• Wikimedia Commons: The Umbrellas

Faithful public-domain reproduction of The Umbrellas (about 1881 to 1886), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.