The Umbrellas (Les Parapluies, 1881–86) — Renoir Postcard

A sudden Paris shower turns a crowd into a forest of deep-blue umbrellas: a young woman with a wicker basket looks quietly out at us from the front, while a small girl with a hoop peers around an older woman in a feathered hat. Begun in 1881 and finished around 1886, "Les Parapluies" hangs in The National Gallery in London and remains one of the most beloved street scenes in impressionism — a city card without the postcard cliché.