Oil on Canvas study of the Arc de Triomphe by; Andre Gisson, (1928-2003) 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.