Lester Alphonso Gillette was born in Columbus, Ohio on October 5th, 1855.  Little is known of his earliest years.  He married Ida S. Carlson in Galesburg, Illinois in 1876, after which the couple moved to San Francisco, California.  Gillette studied painting in his spare time for four years at the California School of Design then continued training under Thomas Hill and Virgil Williams in San Francisco. He also studied with Birge Harrison in Woodstock, New York, Mitchell Jacobs in New York City, George Elmer Browne in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and John F. Carlson in Colorado Springs.  He also was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago and a pupil of William Merritt Chase.

Gillette lived in Riley, Kansas before moving to Topeka, Kansas in 1900.  He was a partner with C.C.Nicholson in a coal and lumber business in Topeka.  He retired in 1920 to devote all his time to painting.  He worked mainly in Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, and along the New England Coast.

He was a member of the Topeka Art Guild, Miami Art Association, Gloucester Society of Artists, and the North Shore Art Association.  Among his Exhibitions were the 1st Annual Kansas Artists Exhibition, 1925; the 4th Annual Kansas Artists Exhibition, 1928; a joint exhibition with George Stone at Washburn College, Topeka, 1929; the 5th Annual Kansas Artists Exhibition, 1929; and the 16th Annual Kansas Artists Exhibition, 1940. His works can be seen in the collections of the Topeka Public Library and the Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas.

Source:
Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) compiled by Susan L. Craig.

Submitted by Scott Wilder.