Andre Gisson (Anders Gittelson) Paintings
Appraised Value:
$3,000 - $4,000
IMAGE: 1 of 3
Appraisal Video: (1:55)
Appraised By:
Alan Fausel
Paintings & Drawings
Vice President Director of Fine Arts
Bonhams
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: I bought them in a gallery in Minneapolis in 1959. They were in the window, and as I walked by, I thought they were very pretty and that they would look wonderful in a special place I had in my living room.
APPRAISER: So you bought them as a pair?
GUEST: I bought them as a pair on the spot. I hadn't gone in planning to buy paintings or anything.
APPRAISER: Okay. And you know who the artist is?
GUEST: Well, I read, or they told me, it was Gisson. I'm not sure of how you pronounce it.
APPRAISER: Right, his name is Andre Gisson. Did they tell you anything about him?
GUEST: The only thing they told me, that he was getting old and he was starting to go blind.
APPRAISER: Really? Okay.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: You do, in fact, have two views of Paris. You can see down here, it is signed "A. Gisson." "G-I-S-S-O-N."
GUEST: Oh, I didn't see the "A."
APPRAISER: They're both signed. Now... nice Parisian views. But the artist wasn't French at all.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: It's one of the great stories. He was a struggling artist. He was born in Brooklyn. His name was Anders Gittelson, of all things.
GUEST: Oh, for heaven's sakes!
APPRAISER: And he was born in 1921. And so what he did was he backed up his dates. He said he was born in 1910 and was named "Andre Gisson." He lived in Westport, Connecticut, most of his life, and painted there. So that's why they thought he was getting older. In his biography, one of his galleries wrote... the very first line says, "Born outside of Paris." It's a bit of an exaggeration. I guess Brooklyn counts as "outside of Paris."
GUEST: But they weren't lying.
APPRAISER: No, they weren't lying, no. He died just recently, in 2003. Did you pay a lot of money for these?
GUEST: I paid $150 for each one.
APPRAISER: $150? Well, his paintings have come up a little bit more in the market recently. So, if I were to put these into an auction, I would probably expect to get $3,000 to $4,000 for them.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Oh, good. My son will be glad to hear that. He's inheriting them.
APPRAISER: Oh, he will? Good.
