Andre Gisson

Sold by Big Sky Fine Art; this original oil painting by Andre Gisson, dating from around 1989.<br> The painting is presented and supplied in its original ornate frame. <br> Previously with Frost & Reed, London.<br> <br> Most modern references claim that Andre Gisson was a Frenchman. He was actually an American born to Swedish immigrant parents in 1921 as Anders Gittelson. He grew up in fairly impoverished circumstances in Brooklyn, New York, and so a career choice as a French impressionist painter was not an obvious one! This style of art was practiced by the elite, for the elite. He wanted to be accepted as a distinguished member of the Parisian art world, and so he changed his name to Andre Gisson and set back his birth date to 1910 to seem older and more distinguished! <br> <br> Gisson was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York City. He fascinated by the work of the Impressionists and studied Monet, Pissarro, Degas and the other most famous French impressionist artists. It is significant that by changing his year of birth he allowed himself to be publically associated with the impressionist frontrunners. <br> <br> After graduating he enlisted in the U.S. Armed Services Army Corps of Engineers, working to reconstruct roads and airfields in the aftermath of World War II. He became a Captain and travelled extensively in Japan and France, but never without his box of paints.<br> <br> Later, he continued to study in Europe, discovering the great English landscape painter J. M. William Turner and the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer as well as his beloved French impressionists. He submerged himself into the world that these famous artists had captured on canvas in the nineteenth century before taking his knowledge back to the States where he set up in New York City. For many years he painted in France in the summer and by Lake Mahopac in upstate New York the rest of the time. His work developed a definite French influence, light and charming. He employed a characteristic broken brushwork and a high-key palette, and painted beaches, street scenes, coastal views and portraits. <br> <br> He later moved to the Northeast, residing in Westport, Connecticut and travelled to New York intermittently, both of which provided artistic inspiration for him. He was truly active as an exhibiting artist for over forty years, showing in New York, Washington, Texas, California, London, Paris and Tokyo. He preferred to exhibit by himself.<br> <br> Several of Gisson's paintings have been published and many are in important<br> collections in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and France. His works are part of the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the Triton Museum of Art in North Carolina. Among his private collectors were President B. Johnson and W. Somerset Maugham. He is referenced in The Artist's Yearbook (p 332, 2000), Artists in the Southwest Art (p. 64, 1993) and Who Was Who in American Art (p. 1296, 1999).<br> <br> Gisson died in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003 following a long illness.<br> <br> His official biography states. "All of Gisson's paintings have the softness<br> of line of the classic impressionist. He is more concerned with the creation of a mood or feeling, rather than a precise depiction of the subject."<br> <br> In 2006 his step-children helped to put on an exhibition at the Southport Galleries in the US, to celebrate the long and successful career of one of America’s master impressionists. Works shown included example from the family’s private collection. His step-daughter Gwen Pier said "Andy's paintings are very much like him. He was very easy to be around -- and so are his paintings”.<br> <br> Southport Galleries Director Dr. Philip Eliasoph, an art history professor at Fairfield University, had both a professional and personal relationship with the artist. He said "I met Andy 25 years ago and felt the urgency to feature him for a one-man showing at Fairfield University at that time. A late-in-life friendship developed as he taught me so much about the pre-war New York art world where he worked shoulder to shoulder with so many painters we know in great American art collections today. "With his Old World courtly style, mild-mannered personality and astonishingly fluid brushwork, I felt privileged to know <b>him</b>. Each of his life-affirming paintings seems magically to be larger than the sum of its parts – sparkling water, blue skies and graceful figures seem to occupy a coherent relationship in Andy's legacy as a first-rate American Impressionist," <br> <br> This beautiful landscape scene depicts the shore of Lake Seneca in New York state, with three ladies and a moored rowing boat. It is of the impressionist style and is painted in a palette of pale blues and greens.