Poolside Gossip: the 1,000-piece jigsaw taken from a Slim Aarons photograph

What it is

Poolside Gossip is a 1,000-piece jigsaw published by Piecework Puzzles, an American maker of jigsaws and home objects. It reproduces a photograph by Slim Aarons, which the brand presents as his best known. According to Piecework, this image is widely regarded as the embodiment of mid-century style and design.

The scene is set beside a swimming pool, at the foot of a mountain range: two women seated on metal loungers on casters, a bunch of yellow flowers by the water, a third figure walking onto the lawn, a wide-brimmed white hat, and in the background a low house, all horizontal lines, with a pale stone chimney. According to Getty Images Gallery, the photograph was taken in January 1970 in Palm Springs, in front of a house designed by the architect Richard Neutra for Edgar J. Kaufmann.

The jigsaw is part of the brand’s exclusive collaboration with Getty Images, which holds the Slim Aarons archive. The collection includes other sunlit scenes, among them Christmas Swim, a photograph by the same Slim Aarons.

Why it exists

Piecework says it was founded to help everyone find joy in their free time. Its founders, Rachel Hochhauser and Jena Wolfe, design jigsaws as worlds to get lost in, with “a puzzle for every mood”. Poolside Gossip is an illustration of that: the image is already a classic, and the brand turns it into an object that you put together, give as a gift or put on display.

The brand presents the box as an object in its own right. Its yellow and white cabana-style stripes make it, according to the brand, ready to be given as a gift or left on show.

What matters

1,000 pieces. This is the format of most of the brand’s jigsaws, which also offers 750-piece formats in the same collection, such as Palm Beach Idyll and Verbier Vacation. Here, the image offers clearly defined blocks of colour: the turquoise of the water, the yellow of a dress and the flowers, the pale grey of the terrace, the green of the lawns and the blue of the mountains.

48.9 × 67.6 cm assembled. According to the brand, the finished jigsaw measures 19.25 × 26.6 inches. You therefore need a table or worktop at least that size, border included.

Thick card and art paper. The brand advertises “thick stock” and high-quality art paper. The jigsaw’s board is made with recycled paper, it says.

A box of 20.3 × 25.4 × 4.6 cm. It measures 8 × 10 × 1.8 inches. It is entirely covered in the yellow and white cabana-style stripes, with the title in large letters, the number of pieces, the photographer’s name and the brand’s name.

A licensed image. The jigsaw falls within the brand’s agreement with Getty Images, which holds the Slim Aarons archive: it is the photograph itself, not a reinterpretation, that the box reproduces as a thumbnail.

Not for children. The brand says so clearly: the jigsaw is not suitable for children.

Day to day

Piecework describes a jigsaw made to be given as a gift, put on display or started straight away. On the lid, a thumbnail of the image serves as a guide during assembly; the pieces themselves pick up the colours of the photograph, from the turquoise of the pool to the yellow of the flowers.

To put it together, you need a flat surface of at least 48.9 × 67.6 cm, the size of the finished jigsaw according to the brand.

The brand also offers a playlist, with hits from the late 1960s and early 1970s, the era of the photograph, so you can assemble the jigsaw to music. It also sells a set, The Martini Set, which brings together the jigsaw and its cocktail napkins with a martini motif: a way of matching the poolside image to the cocktail hour.

Technical specifications

Feature	Value
Type	1,000-piece jigsaw
Image	Photograph by Slim Aarons, licensed by Getty Images
Size of the assembled jigsaw	48.9 × 67.6 cm (19.25 × 26.6 inches)
Size of the box	20.3 × 25.4 × 4.6 cm (8 × 10 × 1.8 inches)
Card	Thick, high-quality art paper
Board	Recycled paper
Audience	Not recommended for children
Extras	Playlist; Martini Set bundle with cocktail napkins

What the brand says

Piecework presents Poolside Gossip as “an iconic image, turned into an iconic puzzle”. It says the image is Slim Aarons’s best known and that it embodies mid-century style and design. It states that the box is ready to be given as a gift, put on display or opened on the spot. Piecework has also taken over the design brand Areaware, according to Business of Home in May 2026, and the two houses remain distinct.

The brand says the Slim Aarons collection grew out of an exclusive collaboration with Getty Images, and that it is extending that collaboration with other titles: Christmas Swim, Sun Basking, Positano Beach and Verbier Vacation. Finally, it presents its board as made of recycled paper.