Dimensions 27.5" x 19.5" (70 cm x 50 cm) - 1,000 pieces
Vincent Van Gogh - Irises
Plagued by mental illness throughout his life, prolific Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh chose to enter an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France in May 1889, where, in the last year before his death, he created almost 130 paintings. Irises was the first painting Van Gogh started after his arrival. Each iris petal in the painting is unique, featuring different shading, shape and size and painted with the same precision as Van Gogh’s portraits. There is no repetition, but rather an endless variety of curved silhouettes. Only one blossom, however, is a completely different color. He paints the flowers with admiration and joy.
Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night
Painted by Vincent van Gogh in June 1889, The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in Western Art. Dominated by vivid blues and yellows applied with emphatic, if not frenetic, brushstrokes, The Starry Night exemplifies Van Gogh’s forceful expression of emotion through color. The view depicted in this work is from the east-facing window of Van Gogh’s asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, with the addition of an imaginary village. The Starry Night is the only nocturne painting in the series of views from his bedroom window.
Edvard Munch - The Scream
Inspired by a hallucination, the haunting oil painting The Scream by Norwegian-born painter Edvard Munch is an icon of modern art. It is said to symbolize modern spiritual anguish. The Scream is Munch’s interpretation of a scream piercing through nature, experienced by the artist while on a walk after his two companions, as seen in the background of the painting, have left him. While seemingly autobiographical, the subject of the painting is distorted, bearing no physical resemblance to the artist, but rather his anguished state of being. Munch used dramatic lines to convey emotion in his work. The repeated, swirling curves of the corpse-like figure’s face, hands, and body are echoed in the landscape, creating a sense of anxiety that moves beyond the figure into the entire world.
Edward Hopper - Nighthawks
Edward Hopper’s most famous work, Nighthawks remains not only one of the most recognizable, but also relatable paintings in 20th-century American art. It has long been positioned as the iconic painting of loneliness and alienation. The painting depicts an all-night diner in which three customers have converged, all strangers to one another. Hopper used his wife, Jo, as the model for the redheaded woman, and himself as the model for the man with his back to the viewer. With no door to enter the diner, the viewer is left outside to witness the melancholy and isolation of three strangers unable to connect. Hopper said of this painting: “Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”
Georges Seurat - A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat's masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is a leading example of pointillist technique. It is a founding work of the Neo-Impressionist movement. In his largest painting, Georges Seurat depicts people relaxing in a suburban park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande Jatte. Their stillness is as enigmatic as it is fascinating. Highly criticized and ridiculed when first exhibited in Paris, this painting is now considered Georges Seurat’s greatest work. With scientific precision, he juxtaposed tiny dabs of colors that, through optical blending, form a single and, in his opinion, more brilliantly luminous hue.
Monet - Bridge Over A Pond of Water Lilies
For the last 30 years of his life, Claude Monet looked no further than his own backyard for inspiration, creating a series of approximately 250 oil paintings. Painted in 1899, Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies represents two of his greatest achievements: his gardens at Giverny and the series of paintings they inspired. Lush and verdant, the predominant use of cool blue and green tones in the tranquil scene are balanced by a complex pattern of delicately hued pink, white, and yellow lilies floating across the surface. In all, there are 17 paintings depicting the Japanese-style bridge that Monet built over his pond. The structure can be seen in various lighting and weather conditions.
Monet - Woman with a Parasol
In Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son (1875), Claude Monet demonstrates that he is as talented a figure portraitist as a landscape artist. He captures his wife and son in an unexpected moment while walking on a windy summer’s day. Sunlight shines upon her back, while shades of yellow from the flowers below dapple her front. His signature light and spontaneous brushwork create splashes of color across the canvas: the green of the meadow is reflected in the underside of her parasol; the billowing clouds and swirling skirt of Madame Monet provide a sense of movement against the static figure of Jean, his son, set in background for depth.
René Magritte - The Treachery of Images/This Is Not A Pipe
This is not a pipe…or is it? Such is the question presented by The Treachery of Images, a classic example of surrealist art by famous Belgian painter, René Magritte. The Treachery of Images is part of a series of paintings featuring images paired with words. In his signature deadpan illustrative style, Magritte challenges the viewer with the paradox of language and visual representation. He states “Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe)” because it is not a pipe: it is a picture of one. Unabashedly simple, this oil on canvas is a masterpiece of surrealism.
