Morning, by the Lake - Masterpiece Jigsaw Puzzle
Edward Dufner (American 1871-1957)
Laurel Ink 500 piece puzzles measure 18" x 24".
Retail $12.95

Morning, by the Lake (from back of puzzle box)
Edward Dufner (American 1871-1957)
American art in the decades prior to the Civil War concentrated on defining a national identity among artist. Throughout the mid nineteenth century, artists such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Church conveyed a patriotic message though a realistic style of painting. During the 1860's, the panoramic pastoral and wilderness scenes that had been rendered in the patriotic air seemed outdated. These young artists sought to break free from aesthetic tradition by becoming more directly linked to international trends.

Paris was the common hub for artist such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, who were reveling against the tradition of academic art. In the 1870's and 1880's, this group of artist (labeled "Impressionists") received hostile responses from the Parisian art critics who considered their work loose, unpolished and sketch-like.

The French Impressionists were first inspired to paint outdoors in an attempt to capture the transformations taking place in their urban environment. This new approach to painting led to the Impressionists to scrutinize the effects of light and color on an entirely new level. Soon, their concentration was fixed on capturing the quality of atmospheric light, the reflections affecting the object, and the juxtaposition of colors. Many American artists were inspired by the French Impressionists' new outlook, which challenged traditional methods and developed a new way of looking at their world.

Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1871, Edward Dufner began his art studies at age eighteen at the Buffalo Art Students League. At twenty-one he was one of the first students to earn an Albright Scholarship to study at the Art Students League in New Your. Working as a magazine illustrator, Dufner was able to save enough money to travel to Europe where he attended the Academie Julian in Paris.

When he returned to the United States in 1903, Dufner changed from the dark, low-keyed palette he had previously used and began painting in the Impressionist style. He was a popular instructor of portrait and still-life painting at both of the Art Students Leagues.

Dufner was dubbed the "Painter of Sunshine" because he often depicted a perfect and perpetual springtime with casual but carefully delineated figures. This painting, Morning, by the lake, exemplifies the attractive, successful, Impressionist formula he frequently used.

New: packaged/shrink wrapped 14"x14" boxed.

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