Press Notices From The Past

Calgary Herald,  February 8, 1941

“…He did the decorations in the Hudson’s Bay cafeteria (no longer visible). Gissing’s place at Cochrane was spacious and easy-going. Overhead are great rafters, relics of a Ghost River flood which washed out timbers from the newly-built dam. These are souvenirs of the flood, and perhaps it is significant that while farmers of the district used their souvenirs as fence-posts, Mr. Gissing made his into rafters for the house.”

Calgary Herald, March 4th, 1944

“…The work of a lifetime including oil and pastel paintings and crayon sketches: a model steam railway and a big collection of rare books were destroyed with the Ghost Lake studio and home of Roland Gissing, famous Canadian artist, were destroyed Friday morning.”

Calgary Herald, February 13th, 1951

“…Alberta Artist a Hit in U.S. Mr. Gissing well known Alberta artist highlighted a Canada Week art display in one of San Francisco’s largest department stores. Sponsored by the Canadian Bank of Commerce the exhibition will soon travel to Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York and other American cities.”

Calgary Herald, November 13th, 1954

“…It may be because of his background of cowboy and homesteader that talking with Roland Gissing the artist is like looking at one of his paintings: You know immediately what he is getting at.”

Excerpt – “Here’s Alberta – People ad Places” by Margaret Maw

A broadcast over CFCN, CFRN, CKRD, CJOC

“If you see an oil painting so truly beautiful that it makes you proud, and perhaps a little homesick for the Alberta foothills, then it is probably a Gissing landscape.”

“…Gissing landscapes are favorite going-away presents – for instance the City of Calgary presented one to the late R.B. Bennett when he left for England – and likewise, they are a fitting introduction to Alberta, as when one was given to Queen Elizabeth when she visited us in 1951.”

Edmonton Journal, October 1967

“…Who was this little known man who never gained critical acclaim or access to major galleries or exhibitions, yet became without doubt Western Canada’s most popular landscape painter? If ever a man sold Alberta, it was Gissing. Steamship companies used his idealized landscapes to encourage western immigration and tourism.”

Edmonton Journal, October 1967

“…Mr. Gissing used to say he was first a lover of nature and second an artist. He credited Western artist Charlie Russell and writer Will James with giving him inspiration.”

Calgary Herald, September 1967

“…His greatest tribute, probably, will be in the fact that he was living quietly in the hills, still a man of middle age, when connoisseurs were seeking “early Gissings.” His memorials are many and they hang around the world. Much of the world came to appreciate the foothills and mountains because of him.”

Calgary Herald, September 1967

“…Roland Gissing an itinerant cowboy who became Alberta’s best-know artist, died suddenly Friday at his home near Okotoks. He was 72.”

“…many people feel a personal loss in the death of famous Alberta landscape artist Roland Gissing.”

“…Alberta, both its mountains and its plains, lost an ambassador with the death of Roland Gissing.”

Calgary Herald, May 9th, 1969

“…The paintings were the only remaining unsold works by the Western Canadian artist, who died in 1967. Placed on sale by order of Mr. Gissing’s estate, 54 oil paintings hung on the walls. At least a half hour before the gallery opened, a line-up had already formed and by 8 p.m., the crowd had swollen to nearly 100. By 8:25p.m. there were only 13 paintings left.”