The Umbrellas

The Umbrellas, a painting by Pierre Auguste-Renoir, has been on loan from the National Gallery to Leicester Museum and Art Gallery since May. The display ends 1st September.

Len and I went to view it this afternoon. It was in a specially darkened room which was also showing an animation purporting to inform the viewer about the painting. I would recommend downloading the information file from Bloomberg Connect rather than rely on the cartoon.

It's much larger than I anticipated at two m tall. The vibrant blue of the well off woman's coat on the right made an impression. She was standing with her two daughters. I don't know if her umbrella protected them from the rain. The outstanding figure for me was the milliner's assistant on the front left. Apparently she is carrying a hatbox. It looked like a shopping basket to me.

You can see the rain falling. I feel that the leery man looking over the shoulder of the girl had dishonourable intentions. Perhaps he was hoping to make an impression by sharing his umbrella. She is the only one not to be carrying an umbrella and she looks poorly dressed compared to the well-off woman in blue (cobalt blue) as her dress seems drabber.

As I was standing in front of the picture, it seemed to me that the right hand side seemed blurred. I blamed my eyesight. But it wasn't that. Renoir painted this in at least two stages. The right hand side was painted early in the 1880s. The clothes are characteristic of the period, Renoir used his Impressionistic technique for this side of the canvas. On the left, the girl's attire is characteristic of 1886 when the painting was finished. The dress has a more streamlined shape and overall, that side of the painting shows Renoir's move to a more classical style, as do the umbrellas.

I think that explains why the right hand side seemed blurred to me.

Len investigated the dinosaur and geology galleries and was very impressed by the quality of the displays. There was even a reproduction of the rock face on which you can see impressions of Charnia, and early Precambrian fossil found in Bradgate Park.

Disappointingly, the café was closed and may not be revived at least until next year, so we left, calling in on Kat, William and Edward on the way home. George arrived as we were leaving.