With twisted ice columns in the foreground and Mont Blanc shrouded in cloud in the background, Le Glacier du Jardin au Mont Blanc depicts, in white, bluish grey and sepia tones, a rocky outcrop in the midst of the Talèfre Glacier, which sits in the shadow of Europe’s highest peak. Gabriel Loppé spent a few months studying at the studio of François Diday, where he met Alexandre Calame – a fellow student who would go on to be his rival and a leading figure of Swiss landscape painting. Loppé, meanwhile, carved out a niche as the undisputed champion of the Alps. One of the first artists to work at high altitude, he was noted for the atmospheric quality of his paintings, his judicious use of light and the spontaneity of his brush strokes. Loppé was rooted in the tradition of the Romantic sublime, painting yawning crevices, slender columns, blazing sunsets and miniature figures. The chalet he had built in Chamonix to exhibit and sell his art now serves as the Loppé museum.

Gabriel Loppé (b. 1825, Montpellier, d. 1913, Paris) lived in Geneva and Annecy and spent every summer in Chamonix. A seasoned mountaineer, he climbed Mont Blanc multiple times, making his first winter ascent in 1876. Aside from a brief stint as a student of François Diday, Loppé was largely self-taught, and in his later years he developed a passion for photography.

Gabriel Loppé. Le glacier du Jardin au Mont-Blanc, 1866. © MHL, photographe Margaux Corda