The Umbrellas

The Umbrellas (about 1881-1886), the artist of the painting is Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a French Impressionist painter. According to Renoir, he began the painting in 1881, painting the figures on the right, but then put it aside and finished it about five years later. During those years, Renoir rethought his whole approach to painting and rejected Impressionism.

Fun Fact: The painting looks like the work of two different artists, because the figures on the right are painted in a loose, Impressionist style with feathery brushwork, blurred contours and intense blues while the rest of the picture is more linear and more sombre in coloring. Read More…

Other Library Resources to learn about art & artists:

Hot Topics Arts – Visual Arts

Biography in Context

Art Detective

Want to learn more about paintings?

Play art detective with The Case of Grandpa’s Painting. Use Grove Art Online to find out the meaning of these terms used in the mystery game:

Art Concepts/Vocabulary:

subject
portrait
style
Renaissance
abstract
composition
color
perspective
brushstroke

Artists featured:

Raphael
Titian
Millet
Van Gogh
Gauguin
Picasso

Can you answer these questions after playing the game?

1. What does Miss Featherduster bring you? What does she want you to do?

2. What country was Picasso from and when did he live?

3. Describe the kind of subjects Titian liked to paint.

4. What was the Renaissance? When was it?

5. Describe Van Gogh’s painting style (brushstrokes, colors, subjects…).

6. What was one of Gauguin’s favorite subjects?

7. What was Millet most interested in showing in his paintings?

8. Describe perspective as used by Raphael. When was it developed and what does it do?

9. Which artist painted the mystery painting? How do you know?

10. Why did Miss Featherduster really want to know about the mystery painting?

11. Which was your favorite artist? Why?