Art Inspired Umbrellas

Imagine a piece of art brightening up a grey looking day, that's what you can have with one of these umbrellas inspired by artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Dega.   These art inspired umbrellas almost make you happy that it's raining!

When we look outside and see grey skies and rain we feel a little depressed.   Luckily umbrella designers have been using a number of techniques to make us happy to use our umbrellas.   Umbrellas can make fantastic fashion statements and in some cases can be pieces of art in themselves (and I mean literally!)

Why would you be upset to see the rain if you knew it gave you a chance to show off your latest masterpiece??   I have selected a collection of umbrellas which really should be adorning an art gallery.   If you love art or are even looking for a unique gift for an art lover in your life then you have come to the right place.

Even if you think you know nothing about art history you will know the names of these artists – Monet, Van Gogh, Da Vinci and Degas

Some of Claude Monet’s favorite subjects relied on rain to make them beautiful – Irises, poppies....   Don’t you think that his famous artwork looks fantastic on umbrellas?

Everyone knows that Van Gogh chopped his ear off, but do you recognize his artwork? My favorite is Starry Night, I think it is a wonderful piece of art and it’s been interpreted onto an umbrellas really well.

Vincent Van Gogh also seemed to love irises like Monet, but his Sunflowers would become much more famous.

Whenever I think of Degas I think of dainty ballerinas and these umbrellas don’t disappoint.

It took Seurat two years to perfect this painting, his most famous, which also includes a number of umbrellas in it.

I am so surprised that I couldn’t find Da Vinci’s most famous piece of art on an umbrella.....there must be one somewhere.   I am talking, of course, about the Mona Lisa.   The umbrella I’ve featured he isn’t really a painting, but it is a sketch that is known the world over as Leonard Da Vinci’s work.

No the umbrella was not invented by Da Vinci they had been around a long time before he was born.

The umbrella is one of the oldest artifacts on the earth and was invented long before man could write, in fact getting anyone to agree on when the umbrella was first invented is seemingly impossible.   In fact umbrellas were often featured in famous pieces of art long before we had the technology to reproduce art works onto them!   Umbrellas have been featured in paintings by the likes of Degas, Monet, Goya, Delacroix, Seurat and Renoir.

Pharoahs were often portrayed under the shade of an umbrella in ancient Egyptian times.   In India an ancient, religious group called the Jains called their ultimate heaven the place of ‘the slightly tilted umbrella.’

The ancient Greeks used the umbrella in many of their festivals especially those associated with the Greek god Bacchus.   Back to the East and an ancient Korean tomb that dated from 25BC was found to contain a collapsible umbrella.

The Romans were also portrayed using umbrellas, especially the spectators at a chariot race or watching the gladiators.

In the late 1800s there was even an umbrella that was designed with a protruding side to protect the bustle that fashionable ladies wore…..so it was a fashion statement way back then, but I don’t recall discussing umbrellas in my history lessons at school!