"Rainy Day in Paris"

Oil on canvas painting by the American artist, Anders Gisson. Signed lower left. Overall in white wash wood frame with white linen liner 30 by 17.25 inches.

Andre Gisson was born with the name of Anders Gittelson in 1921 in Brooklyn, New York. As a leading American Realist painter, he is often known for landscape, still life, portrait and figure paintings that reflect an adopted experience by his extensive travels and studies in Europe and the Far East, and his desire to appear in a cosmopolitan background. As a struggling young Impressionist painter originally from New York City, and to highlight his reputation in order to enhance his chances for success, he claimed to be French and adopted his artistic name asserting to have been born in 1910 to find himself more closely aligned with the founders of the Impressionist movement.

He lived in Westport, Connecticut for most of his life, but also in New York and in France. He graduated from the Pratt Institute, and after graduation, he joined the United States Armed Services to become Captain in the Army during World War II. Gisson continued his studies in Europe, where he came under the influence of the great French impressionists. Upon his return to New York he resumed his career in art as an impressionist painter, having developed and refined the style and technique of impressionism. As multitalented artist, he is equally adept at painting landscapes, coastal scenes, still lifes, and portraits with small broken brushwork including soft and vibrant colors. Gisson's landscapes and beach scenes depict the French countryside, where he paints every summer, and the region around Lake Mahopac in upstate New York, where he lived for many years.

His portraits were intended to create a reflective mood of serenity. His still life compositions show a Japanese influence in his work, while the French influence is more pronounced in his studies of the human figure. Several of Gisson’s paintings have been published and distributed internationally. His works have been exhibited in leading art galleries throughout the country for over four decades, as a solo show extended from New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Texas and California, also overseas locations in London, Paris and Tokyo. His work are part of the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the Triton Museum of Art, in North Carolina. Among his private collectors were President Lyndon B. Johnson and W. Somerset Maugham. Gisson died in 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia.