![Pierre-Auguste Renoir - L’ombrelle [1878]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7481/16268768741_37e7500a50_o.jpg)
In this radiant painting, Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicts the quintessential Impressionist subject of the fashionably attired Parisienne within a scene of abundantly flowering nature. Painted in 1878 at the height of Impressionism, the variegated brushwork consisting of thick and swirling impasto and small dabs of spontaneous and audaciously applied paint, make L'ombrelle one of the artist's most experimental works of the latter part of that decade. The picture exemplifies Renoir's ideal of harmoniously integrating a figure into an outdoor setting, and of capturing the myriad effects of light and shade in a range of dazzling colours. Bright sunlight illuminates the luxuriantly painted blossoming tree and bounces off the model's hat and daintily held parasol, which, in turn, partially casts her figure into shade. Patches of violet and pink, meanwhile, brilliantly convey dappled light as it filters through the foliage.
[Sold for £9,673,250 at Christie’s, London - Oil on canvas, 61.9 x 50.8 cm]