Thatched Cottages at Cordeville - Masterpiece Jigsaw Puzzle Vincent van Gogh (Dutch 1853-1890)
Laurel Ink 500 piece puzzles measure 18" x 24".
Retail $12.95

Thatched Cottages at Cordeville - Masterpiece Jigsaw Puzzle
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch 1853-1890) (from back of puzzle box)
At the beginning of the 1880's, many artists in France were becoming dissatisfied with Impressionism. They felt that the Impressionists neglected too many traditional elements in their attempts to capture fleeting moments of light an color. Even Pierre Auguste Renoir commented in 1883, "I had wrung [Impressionism] dry..." The post-Impressionist movement led artists to alter their focus from the study of light and atmosphere to the examination of line, pattern, from and color. The Impressionists' search for new ways to depict contemporary life opened the door for other artists to further question and challenge artistic methods and traditions.

The Term "post-Impressionism" signifies both the movement's chronological position in nineteenth century Western painting and the influence of Impressionism on four artists who would soon be leaders of this modern movement. Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gough initially based their work on Impressionist precepts and methods; however, their art soon diverged markedly from Impressionism, setting the stage for the post-Impressionist movement.

Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853. Being the son of a Dutch Protestant pastor, van Gogh believed he had a religious calling, and worked as a preacher in the poorest neighborhoods in London and in a coal-mining district in Belgium. His family also dealt in art, and van Gogh spent ten years working for Goupil Art Gallery. He soon developed an intellectual curiosity for contemporary art and literature. This curiosity led him to Paris where he joined with contemporaries such as Gauguin, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. Van Gogh proved himself a true modernist and soon developed an appreciation for the Japanese aesthetic, especially as it was expressed in wood block prints.

Because of his missionary work and struggle with epilepsy and depression, van Gogh was exposed to the harshest and saddest human conditions. This theme would follow him throughout his career as a starving artist. Van Gogh left Paris in 1888 and went to the south of France where his work continued to subtly reflect the traditional influence of his time in Holland, as well as the works of the Impressionists and neo-Impressionists he studied with in Paris. However, the paintings van Gogh produced in the last few years of his life took on an entirely new identity, reflecting both his genius and his torment.

Van Gogh used his art as a form of communication and often expressed a deep desperation in his depictions of the simplest of subjects. He often used uneven lines and large repetitive brushstrokes to create harsh patterns and distorted objects. Van Gogh said that he used color to express himself forcibly. He once wrote in a letter to his brother, Theo, when describing the color in one of his paintings, "(the color) was not locally true from the point of view of the delusive realist, but color suggesting some emotion of an ardent temperament." This use of expressive color, line and pattern is especially prevalent in the works he did at Auver-sur-Oise, where he painted Thatched Cottages at Cordeville in 1890, the same year he died.

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