2000 piece puzzle, "Young Peasant Girls Resting in the Fields Near Pontoise (1882)" by Camille Pissarro; Grafika, France.
A pastoral scene which I admit I didn't find very exciting during the assembly, but at least it didn't have any defects in the manufacturing process. For the price (for a 2000, around €25, minus 20 percent VAT to send outside of EU, plus 10 percent off as a puzzle.fr member, plus a 15 percent off summer sale), these were a good deal, especially if bought in large numbers so the shipping cost per unit is low.
The range of Grafika images is impressive, however I wish that owner Alizé Group would consider using higher resolution images. The National Gallery in Washington, DC, where this painting is located, has free, high resolution images (as do many museums, these days) that can be downloaded and used for commercial purposes provided that the work is in the public domain. This has been a huge technological breakthrough that has only materialized in the past five years or so, and it's time that puzzle companies increase the resolution of their art puzzles accordingly. Planet Puzzles offers custom "photo" puzzles (also, at a very good price), but limits the file size to 30 MB - which is a decent quality, but not as rich as the typical 200-250 MB that many museums offer on their web sites. I am guessing that Grafika's regular issue puzzles are also limited to about that size. I don't understand why in 2023 there would be any need to limit the file size to 30 MB, and I have asked them about this and received a boilerplate response. Computers are fast enough to process a 250 MB file nearly as quickly as a 30 MB one; there is no extra printing or production cost, yet richness of the image would be nearly 10 times better.
Still, compared to where the puzzle scene was a decade ago, I hardly feel the need to complain too loudly considering how much interesting new stuff is being made.
Pissarro paintings make extremely challenging puzzles. I thought this one was going to be even more difficult than it turned to be, but this and his Boulevard des Italiens are the two most difficult Grafika 2000 pcs. I've made thus far. (The Klimt 1500 pc. Birch Forest, also by Grafika, was more difficult than this one.)
Completed in 20 hr., 37 mins. with no box reference. 2000 total pieces: 37.1 secs./piece; 97.0 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 3.7/10.
2000 piece puzzle, "Young Peasant Girls Resting in the Fields Near Pontoise (1882)" by Camille Pissarro; Grafika, France.
A pastoral scene which I admit I didn't find very exciting during the assembly, but at least it didn't have any defects in the manufacturing process. For the price (for a 2000, around €25, minus 20 percent VAT to send outside of EU, plus 10 percent off as a puzzle.fr member, plus a 15 percent off summer sale), these were a good deal, especially if bought in large numbers so the shipping cost per unit is low.
The range of Grafika images is impressive, however I wish that owner Alizé Group would consider using higher resolution images. The National Gallery in Washington, DC, where this painting is located, has free, high resolution images (as do many museums, these days) that can be downloaded and used for commercial purposes provided that the work is in the public domain. This has been a huge technological breakthrough that has only materialized in the past five years or so, and it's time that puzzle companies increase the resolution of their art puzzles accordingly. Planet Puzzles offers custom "photo" puzzles (also, at a very good price), but limits the file size to 30 MB - which is a decent quality, but not as rich as the typical 200-250 MB that many museums offer on their web sites. I am guessing that Grafika's regular issue puzzles are also limited to about that size. I don't understand why in 2023 there would be any need to limit the file size to 30 MB, and I have asked them about this and received a boilerplate response. Computers are fast enough to process a 250 MB file nearly as quickly as a 30 MB one; there is no extra printing or production cost, yet richness of the image would be nearly 10 times better.
Still, compared to where the puzzle scene was a decade ago, I hardly feel the need to complain too loudly considering how much interesting new stuff is being made.
Pissarro paintings make extremely challenging puzzles. I thought this one was going to be even more difficult than it turned to be, but this and his Boulevard des Italiens are the two most difficult Grafika 2000 pcs. I've made thus far. (The Klimt 1500 pc. Birch Forest, also by Grafika, was more difficult than this one.)
Completed in 20 hr., 37 mins. with no box reference. 2000 total pieces: 37.1 secs./piece; 97.0 pcs./hr. Difficulty rating: 3.7/10.