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, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

. A recognised leader of the Lombard school of painting, he spent most of his life in

Stresa Stresa is a ''comune'' (municipality) of about 4,600 residents on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the Italian region of Piedmont. about northwest of Milan. It is situated on road and rail routes to the Sim ...

(Verbania) and on the coast of

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

, with long stays in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Biography

Early life and education

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 (), 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 Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

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

movement when still very young and formed a close friendship with

Tranquillo Cremona Tranquillo Cremona (10 April 1837 – 10 June 1878) was an Italians, Italian painter. His paintings have a windswept style, lacking the linearity of Francesco Hayez and other academics. His technique recalls the ''pittura de tocco e di macchia'' ...

. Of Gignous’s early work, the portraits of the 1870s were influenced by the work of his friends among the Scapigliati, Tranquillo Cremona and

Daniele Ranzoni Daniele Ranzoni (1843 in Intra, Novara – 1889 in Intra, Novara) was an Italian painter of second half of the 19th century. A leading painter of the Milanese Scapigliatura, Ranzoni is also considered as the first of the Italian Divisionists. ...

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

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French language, 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 ai ...

and producing views of the Lombard and Piedmontese countryside that he showed at all the major national exhibitions. Until he married in 1881, Gignous travelled and exhibited extensively, showing work at the

1873 Vienna World's Fair The 1873 Vienna World's Fair () was the large world exposition that was held from 1 May to 31 October 1873 in the Austria-Hungarian capital Vienna. Its motto was "Culture and Education" (). History As well as being a chance to showcase Austro- ...

in 1873 and the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878. Important paintings from this period include ''Rustic Courtyard at Colombera'' (1870; Milan, Museo di Milano) and ''Flowers in the Cloister'' (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera).

Mature work

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 into a poor family on 18 September 1853 in Brescia, in Lombardy, which at th ...

and

Filippo Carcano Filippo Carcano (25 September 1840 – 19 January 1914) was an Italian painter. Biography Carcano was born in Milan, Italy. A pupil of Francesco Hayez at the Brera Academy in Milan as from 1855, he won the Canonica Prize with a work on a histor ...

, 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. During the 1880s Gignous also painted in Liguria and in Venice, exhibiting his work successfully (e.g. ''Calm'', 1884; Rome,

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna The ("National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art museum in Rome. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contemporary ar ...

). In 1886 he settled in Stresa on Lake Maggiore, where he painted impressionistic views of the region, becoming the chief representative of the landscape school emerging there in the 1890s. He still visited Liguria regularly in winter and occasionally went to work in Venice. Later works include the landscape Monte Rosa at Macugnaga (1896; Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna). Gignous died in 1906 in Stresa. The

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

held a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1907.

Selected works

* ''Veduta del Monte Rosa'', Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rom * ''Primavera'', Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano * ''Sul Mottarone'', Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano * ''Lago Maggiore, Feriolo'', Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza * ''Paesaggio con treno'', Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza * ''Pecetto Macugnaga'', Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari, Vicenza * ''Prima neve'', Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza * ''Bosco'', Galleria d'Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza * ''Pianura Lombarda'', Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania Pallanza * ''Fletschhorn'', Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania Pallanza Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Gignous Eugenio, Paesaggio con stagno.jpg, ''Paesaggio con stagno'' Landscape on Lake Maggiore (unknown date), by Eugenio Gignous.jpg, ''Landscape on Lake Maggiore'' Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Gignous Lorenzo, Case e montagne.jpg, ''Case e montagne'' Eugenio Gignous Scogliera a Sestri Levante.jpg, ''Scogliera a Sestri Levante'' Eugenio Gignous Bosco con stagno.jpg, ''Bosco con stagno'' Eugenio gignous, i fiori del chiostro, 02.jpg, ''I fiori del chiostro''

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 foun ...

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

Other projects

* {{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