Jan van Haasteren’s "The Balloon Festival" is the title of this hilarious 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that has been produced by the artist Jan van Haasteren.
The puzzle image illustrates a hot air balloon festival where members of the public, hot air balloon operators and balloon fanatics have gathered to celebrate and take part in balloon related activates. The festival is well under-way, but like all of Jan’s illustrations, it’s not quite going to plan, with one of the balloons deflating over the crowd, while other balloons sit on-top of each other mid-flight, and even a airplane has been caught out and has landed on a raising balloon.
If this small taster of the illustrations in this puzzle sounds like your cup of tea, then don't miss out on the fun of piecing this puzzle together, because there are many more hilarious illustrations to be enjoyed.
- Material: recycled cardboard and the linen-finish paper
- Assembled Size: 98 cm x 68 cm or 38.58" x 26.77"
- Artist: Rob Jan van Haasteren
- Manufactured: Netherlands
WARNING! Not suitable for children younger than 3 years old. Risk of suffocation.
Background Story:
Jan van Haasteren puzzles have been world famous for years. For puzzle fans from all over the world, puzzles from Jan have always guaranteed hours of puzzle pleasure!
The puzzles are all highly detailed, very colourful and above all humorous. There are always masses of hidden amusing images waiting for us to discover.
The trademark of every puzzle: there is a lot going on, the puzzles are a funny look on reality, and you can find a shark’s fin and a Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) in every puzzle. With a little luck the trained eye can also find Jan van Haasteren’s self-portrait in the crowds.
Make sure you also look for other favourite images in the crowds –The Hands, The Dentures and Jan’s self-portrait which you will find in nearly all of his illustrations. He uses all types of social events as inspiration for his images. These jigsaws are very enjoyable to complete as you never know what you are going to see next!
The Story Behind the Signature Shark's Fin:
“I can’t remember when I started drawing this. I worked on comic books too of course. A lot of times I put something in the back ground to fill the image. The shark’s fin does have a story. For Eppo [a Dutch comic magazine] I made a comic book about a person who saw things nobody else could see. During his holiday he wanted to sit on the beach and there a shark came for him. A whole adventure starts there. Since then I always draw a shark’s fin. It is not that I have to, I just love absurdity, to put something in an image that should not be there. I forgot it once. I hid it so well that even I could not find it. But that will never happen again.”
– De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper, October 26, 2014, commemorating Jan Van Haasteren’s 30th anniversary of making puzzles.