Edmund William Giesbert, painter, illustrator, and teacher, was born Edward Wilhelm Giesbert, son of Julius and Amelia Dewes Giesbert, in Neuwied, Germany on 1 June 1893. He was trained at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago with George Bellows. He also studied with André Lhote and Charles Webster Hawthorne

According to Federal Naturalization Records, Giesbert first signed a declaration of intention to become a United States citizen in 1915. He was married in Chicago in 1920 and began his career as Professor of Art at the University of Chicago in 1927.  At the university, he was a member of the Renaissance Society and his work was included in a number of the society’s exhibitions between 1930 and 1960, including his 1939 solo exhibition Edmund Giesbert: Drawings and Paintings.

Giesbert’s work was included in the Artists of Chicago & Vicinity exhibitions held annually at the Art Institute of Chicago. He showed throughout the 1930s, 1940 to 1943, 1948, and 1951 and 1951. In the mid 1930s and in 1940, he was included in the International Water Colors Exhibitions also held at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Edmund W. Giesbert’s work is represented in the collections of the University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames; the Longyear Museum, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts; and the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois.

Giesbert moved to Harbert, Michigan in 1941 and registered for the draft in 1942. He died on 11 November 1971 in Saint Joseph, Michigan.