Hope Puzzles LLC
Summer by Frank Weston Benson
Summer by Frank Weston Benson
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Artwork by Frank Weston Benson
Piece Count: 371
Dimensions: 11.25" x 14"
MC: Moderately Challenging
Puzzle Design by Sam O. White
Shipping & Returns
Shipping & Returns




About The Puzzle
Summer shows the artist's daughters and their friends on a hillside near his summer home on North Haven Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine. Elisabeth "Betty" Benson and her friend, Anna Hathaway, are seated at the left, while Eleanor Benson stands shielding her eyes from the sun. Benson's niece, Margaret "Gretchen" Strong, is seated to the right. Benson worked from carefully composed photographs, which still exist in albums at the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, and repeated several of the figures in Summer in later paintings. He was a member of The Ten, a group of American painters whose work reflects the influence of French Impressionism. While Benson captures the effects of natural sunlight and sea air with bright colors and loose brushwork, his figures remain imposing and sculptural.
Our puzzle design imagines a moment soon after the scene of the painting where two of the painting's models depart in a rowboat and the other two gesture goodbye to them. The painting is situated on an island in Maine, and many of the whimseys draw on imagery from the state. A garden of lupine, puffins, a lobster, a lighthouse, a seal, and an old wooden sloop fill out the scene.
Courtesy of the RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
Hope Puzzles Difficulty Chart
Less Challenging (LC): Larger pieces (1.5" - 2"+), fewer pieces, suitable for all age groups
Challenging (C): Medium size pieces (1"+), often bright colors, crisp image, 100-250 pieces
Moderately Challenging (MC): Medium size pieces (3/4" - 1"), multiple piece whimseys, 250+ pieces
Very Challenging (VC): small size pieces (1/2" - 3/4"), often old images, often much of an image has a large area with same color, 400+ pieces
Extremely Challenging (EC): smaller size pieces (1/2"), 550+ pieces, repetitive pattern image or muted image colors, complex pieces