Les Parapluies-The Umbrellas-1881-6 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Renoir's 'Umbrellas' shows a bustling Paris street in the rain. The composition of the painting does not focus on the centre of the picture which is a tangle of hands. It even cuts off figures at either edge like a photographic snapshot. This kind of unconventional arrangement was something that several of the Impressionists, including Renoir and Degas, enjoyed experimenting with. When he began 'The Umbrellas' in 1880-1, Renoir was still using the typically loose brushwork and bright, pure colors of the Impressionist movement. During the early 1880s, he became increasingly disillusioned with the Impressionist technique. He began to look back to more traditional art: the drawings of Ingres and the 'purity and grandeur' of classical art. Returning to 'The Umbrellas', he repainted the figure on the left in a crisper style, using a more muted palette. The rapid changes in women's fashions allow us to date the second stage of the painting to 1885-6.