Bay Area artist Wayne Thiebaud worked first as a graphic designer and cartoonist before beginning his painting career in the mid-1950s. He combined a number of interests then current in American art: thick, gestural brushwork, everyday subject matter, and commercial imagery.

Mesmerized by the streets of San Francisco, Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) painted Sunset Streets thirteen years after buying a second home in Potrero Hill. The painting dramatically plays with perspective, flattening the hills, buildings, and streets until they’re in dizzying proximity with the viewer.

Using the bright colors and masterful shadows that characterized many of his works, Thiebaud makes an everyday scene enthralling. Thiebaud was known for infusing familiar items—such as gumball machines, cakes, ice cream, and lipstick—with wonder. In Sunset Streets, San Francisco becomes a subject of wonder, with Thiebaud inviting people to see its towering hills through a new lens.

1000 piece puzzle. Ages 12 and up. 27 x 20 in. assembled.

Wayne Thiebaud, Sunset Streets, 1986, oil on canvas, 48 in. × 35 3/4 in.; Purchase with the aid of funds from public subscription, William L. Gerstle Fund, Fund of the '80s, Clinton Walker Fund, and Thomas W. Weisel; © Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society, NY.