Régis François Gignoux

Who was Régis François Gignoux?

Régis François Gignoux was a French painter who was active in the United States from 1840 to 1870. He was born in Lyon, France and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under the French historical painter Hippolyte Delaroche, who inspired Gignoux to turn his talents toward landscape painting. Gignoux arrived in the United States from France in 1840 and eventually opened a studio in Brooklyn, New York. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, and was the first president of the Brooklyn Art Academy. George Inness, John LaFarge, and Charles Dormon Robinson were his students. By 1844, Gignoux had opened a studio in New York City and became one the first artists to join the famous Tenth Street Studio, where other members included Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and John Frederick Kensett. He returned to France in 1870 and died in Paris in 1882.

Gignoux is best known for his meticulous renderings of Northeast American landscapes, and was the only member of the Hudson River School to specialize in snow scenes. The Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Georgia Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Hood Museum of Art, the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, the Parrish Art Museum, the Smith College Museum of Art, the United States Capitol Art Collection, the Walters Art Museum, the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and the Watson Gallery are among the public collections holding work by Régis François Gignoux.