Identity:

Abraham Archibald Anderson was a landscape, portrait and flower painter.

Life:

Abraham Anderson studied in Paris under Alexandre Cabanel, Leon Bonnat (1873) and Ferdinand Cormon and became best known for his portraits. Anderson was a friend of Thomas Edison and acted as his interpreter at the Paris Exposition in 1889. His portrait of Edison, Thomas A. Edison listening to his first perfected phonograph (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution), was painted during the Exposition. Another picture,The Morning after the Ball, was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Salon before it was exhibited at the 1889 Exposition. Edison subsequently purchased it.

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; http://www.nps.gov (accessed 2003)