The son of a silk merchant from Lyon and a Milanese mother, Eugenio Gignous enrolled in the ornamental course at the Brera Academy in 1865, where he was a student of Luigi Riccardi and Gaetano Fasanotti. Gignous specialized in landscape painting. He became friends with Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni, and his work was influenced by the Scapigliatura movement. His painting was then influenced by the leader of Lombard naturalism Filippo Carcano, who took Gignous to Lake Maggiore in 1879. Having settled with his family in Stresa in 1887, his production then focused on the depiction of lake landscapes. He also made frequent trips to Venice and Liguria. The years from 1887 to 1906 were the period of greatest interest not only for the painting of Lake Maggiore, but also for the contacts established with other painters such as Uberto Dell'Orto, Leonardo Bazzaro, Mosè Bianchi, Achille Formis.