Looking northwest, towards Geneva, Loppé painted this beautiful sunset from studies made up at the Grands Mulets seen to the lower right. In the middle of the composition, the distinctive shoulder of the Aiguille du Varan stands above the clouds. The Grands Mulets and its eponymous hut played an important role in Loppé’s life as a painter and as a mountaineer. He first climbed up as far as the refuge from Chamonix in July 1853 and by 1873, twenty years later, few people apart from the most seasoned mountain guides knew Mont Blanc better than he did. With over thirty successful ascents of the mountain during his lifetime, nearly all via the Grands Mulets Route, Loppé’s diaries also record many extended stays there, when he would paint for days on end, relying on his family and guides to replenish supplies from the valley below.

It was from this same hut above the Grands Mulets glacier, that this author and a small group of climbers took the painter, James Hart Dyke, to Mont Blanc’s summit in July 2022. In emulating Loppé’s Sunset on Mont Blanc, two paintings done in August 1873, the painting expedition spent three nights at this spot and were treated to the most remarkable and vivid sunsets just like the one reproduced here.

- William Mitchell, Peaks & Glaciers 2026