Eugenio Gignous (4 August 1850 – 30 August 1906) was an Italian painter born in Milan, which when he was born was part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

Biography

The son of a silk merchant from Lyon, Gignous displayed a precocious talent for painting and enrolled at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera ("academy of fine arts of Brera"), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di ...

of Fine Arts in 1864, attending the courses on landscape taught by

Luigi Riccardi Luigi Riccardi (Lione, 1808Milan, 1877) was an Italian painter. He created landscapes and watercolors. He trained under Giuseppe Bisi Giuseppe Bisi (1787–1869) was an Italian painter, mainly of landscapes in a Romantic style. In 1829, ...

and then Gaetano Fasanotti. He came into contact with the Milanese

Scapigliatura ''Scapigliatura'' () is the name of an artistic movement that developed in Italy after the Risorgimento period (1815–71). The movement included poets, writers, musicians, painters and sculptors. The term Scapigliatura is the Italian equivalent of ...

movement when still very young and formed a close friendship with

Tranquillo Cremona Tranquillo Cremona (10 April 1837 – 10 June 1878) was an Italian painter. Biography He was born in Pavia and was the brother of the mathematician Luigi Cremona. He trained as a young man with Giovanni Carnovali. Others note he trained under a ...

. He began to focus exclusively on landscape in the 1870s, experimenting with painting

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

and producing views of the Lombard and Piedmontese countryside that he showed at all the major national exhibitions. The late 1870s saw a more naturalistic approach to landscape painting under the influence of

Francesco Filippini Francesco Filippini (18 September 1853 – 6 March 1895) was an Italian painter from Lombardy. He was much influenced by Tranquillo Cremona. Life Filippini was born in Brescia, in Lombardy in northern Italy, on 18 September 1853, into a p ...

and

Filippo Carcano Filippo Carcano (Milan, 1840–1914) was an Italian painter. Biography A pupil of Francesco Hayez at the Brera Academy in Milan as from 1855, Carcano won the Canonica Prize with a work on a historical subject in 1862, while experimenting in the ...

, with whom Gignous went to paint on Lake Maggiore in 1879, thus inaugurating a thematic repertoire devoted primarily to views of the Verbano, Mottarone and Val d’Ossola. Some biographical notes written by the artist’s wife Matilde would appear to bear out the hypothesis of a trip to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in the company of Carcano in 1878 and attest to friendship with

Vincenzo Vela Vincenzo Vela (May 3, 1820 - October 3, 1891) was a Swiss-Italian sculptor, active mainly in northern Italy. Biography Vela was born in Ligornetto in the canton of Ticino to parents of little means. Having started work as boy as a stonecutter a ...

, who was apparently his host on numerous occasions in Ligornetto. A recognised leader of the Lombard school of painting, he lived in

Stresa Stresa is a town and ''comune'' of about 4,600 residents on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, about northwest of Milan. It is situated on road and rail routes to the Simpl ...

(Verbania) and on the coast of Liguria from 1887 to 1906, with long stays in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. He died in 1906 in Stresa. The Venice Biennale held a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1907.

References

* Elena Lissoni
Eugenio Gignous
online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit found ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for the first revision of this article).

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gignous, Eugenio 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists Painters from Milan Brera Academy alumni Scapigliatura Movement Italian people of French descent 1850 births 1906 deaths