André Gisson

André Gisson was born Anders Gittelson in 1921 and raised in modest circumstances before earning an art degree from the Pratt Institute in New York. He served as a U.S. Army captain in World War II, then traveled and studied throughout Europe and Asia. Finding it hard to break into the market as an American Impressionist, he moved to France, legally adopted the name André Gisson, and for a time presented himself as a French-born painter to align with the Impressionist tradition. Gisson painted in a loose, high-key Impressionist manner - broken brushwork and luminous color - favoring beach and street scenes, landscapes, coastal views, still lifes, and portraits. Enormously prolific, he produced hundreds of works over his career, building a broad base of collectors that reportedly included President Lyndon B. Johnson and the writer W. Somerset Maugham. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Westport, Connecticut, and his work is held in the Triton Museum of Art. Gisson's accessible, decorative Impressionism remains popular at auction.