Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of modern

painting. At some point in the 1860s, a group of young artists decided to paint,
very simply, what they saw, thought, and felt. They weren’t interested in painting
history, mythology, or the lives of great men, and they didn’t seek perfection in
visual appearances. Instead, as their name suggests, the Impressionists tried to get
down on canvas an “impression” of how a landscape, thing, or person appeared to
them at a certain moment in time.

 The Impressionists used looser brushwork and lighter colors than previous
artists.
 The light conditions at the given time in day are painted very close to reality
for each scene or landscape.

 The “broken colour” technique where the colour is painted on a canvas using
small short strokes,
 The paint is applied to a white or light-coloured ground.
 They abandoned traditional three-dimensional perspective and rejected the
clarity of form that had previously served to distinguish the more important
elements of a picture from the lesser ones.
 Painting objects with layers of wet paint without waiting for each stroke to
dry is a characteristic of Impressionism. 

Luncheon at the Boating Lake 

Renoir loved the boating lake just north of Chatou/Croissy. It was adjacent to the Hotel
Fournaise, where Renoir had courted his wife Aline and where the two often returned in
summer.

The painting is thoroughly impressionist: it depicts a modern scene, contemporary

clothing and does not seek to impart any moral message. This is just about people
having fun on a Sunday afternoon.

This was in keeping with Renoir's general philosophy of painting.

Bar at the Folies-Bergere 

In 1882, Manet was dying of tertiary syphilis, But he was still keen to paint and
exhibit his works at the official Salon des Beaux Arts, where he had finally
achieved success the previous year (being awarded a second class medal for a
painting of the aristocrat Henri Rochefort). 
The painting is a classic Manet:

 It is principally a portrait, the type of work for which Manet is best known;
 It is a painting of one of the most exciting venues in Manet’s beloved Paris
(the Folies Bergere often had circus acrobats performing, as can be seen
from dangling feet at the top left of the picture); and
 The work is thoroughly modern (showcasing electric lighting, beer bottles
from England and imported tangerines).
The Card Players 

Paul Cézanne was a complex fellow. Born in Aix en Provence in southern France,
he struggled for years to escape his domineering father. He was ill-tempered and
much of his early work was quite disturbing (it even includes paintings of
murders).
But with Pissarro’s encouragement and support he was brought into the
impressionist fold and exhibited in two of their eight independent exhibitions .

The paintings
Cezanne's series of five Card Players all depict local Provençal farmhands focussing
intently on their games of cards. Two pictures show three card players; the remaining
paintings only two.

The works are striking for a number of reasons:

 The players sit inertly and seem totally detached from each other.
 The proportions of many of the players seem odd: check out the small heads,
long arms and large bodies.
 Pipes and hats feature heavily (Cezanne’s father had a hat business before he
became a banker).
 The colour blue—a Cézanne favourite—is prominent in all but one of the
paintings.