Name: John Mitchell Fine Paintings
Address: 17 Avery Row, London, England, W1K 4BF, GB
Telephone: +44 020 7493 7567

William Mitchell: The Leading Specialist in Gabriel Loppé and Painters of the Alps

As a London-based art dealer, William Mitchell has spent decades researching and cataloguing important 19th and early 20th century paintings and photographs of the Alps. A director of the family-run gallery John Mitchell Fine Paintings in Mayfair, he specialises in 19th and early 20th-century painters of the Alps and is also an experienced mountaineer, having climbed Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn and undertaken expeditions in the Karakoram.

Country Life Magazine, July 2026.
While working in the art business in Paris for a few years, Mitchell took up mountaineering and developed a deep appreciation for the Alpine landscape. When he returned to London, he began searching for mountain paintings and soon discovered two long-lost paintings by Gabriel Loppé (The Mer de Glace and the Grands Charmoz) rolled up in cylindrical shipping boxes, where they had slept since an 1874 London exhibition. Recognising the mastery of these mountain paintings, Mitchell partnered with the Alpine Club in London to borrow and restore a substantial portion of their poorly preserved collection. This culminated in the inaugural Peaks & Glaciers exhibition - an annual event that has since become Britain's longest-running specialist exhibition devoted to the finest alpine paintings, photographs and drawings of the Alps. Each winter, Mitchell publishes the exhibition's accompanying Peaks & Glaciers catalogue and together, these catalogues have become an important resource for private collectors, major auction houses and museums.

William Mitchell presents Gabriel Loppé's The Mer de Glace in Paris, 2022.
‘The overriding ambition or mission statement is to remind us how much the Alps can engage our thoughts - in all seasons - whether as climber, skier, walker or rêveur’.

- William Mitchell, Peaks & Glaciers 2025
Few individuals have done more to advance the modern appreciation of Gabriel Loppé than William Mitchell. Over the course of his career, he has handled and sold more than 100 paintings by the artist, advised major auction houses and curated landmark exhibitions, including Gabriel Loppé, artist au sommet at the Forte di Bard in Italy. In 2018, he published the first substantial English-language study of the artist, Gabriel Loppé: Peintre-Alpiniste, bringing together many hitherto unpublished works.

William Mitchell at the Gabriel Loppé, artist au sommet exhibition, 2022.
William Mitchell watching James Hart Dyke paint the summit of Mont Blanc

Continuing the tradition of the peintres-alpinistes, Mitchell spent two years planning an expedition to retrace Loppé’s historic 1873 ascent of Mont Blanc. In July 2022, he accompanied British landscape artist James Hart Dyke on the exact route, where Hart Dyke recreated plein-air oil paintings directly from the summit - a feat documented by publications like the BBC, Sky News, The Guardian and New Scientist. Mitchell later authored and published Mont Blanc: The Summit Paintings, the definitive 124-page hardcover book documenting the entire journey.
Today, as Keeper of Pictures at the Alpine Club and a member of the Gabriel Loppé Committee, William Mitchell continues to research, write and lecture on important 19th and early 20th-century painters of the Alps. Visitors of the gallery in Mayfair, by appointment at 17 Avery Row are welcome to view a selection of the latest offerings.

Contact William Mitchell: enquiries@johnmitchell.net
Key Publications
- Gabriel Loppé: Peintre-Alpiniste (2018)
- Mont Blanc: The Summit Paintings (2022)
- Peaks & Glaciers catalogues
Press

Sky News with Kay Burley

Kay Burley interviews James Hart Dyke and William Mitchell about the project to paint on the summit of Mont Blanc.

The Guardian

Artist captures the impact of climate crisis over 150 years on Mont Blanc:

'Paintings from a climb that retraced an 1800s route on western Europe’s highest mountain reveals the extent of the peak’s melting ice.'

Chamonix

'William Mitchell, gallery owner in London, specialist in the work of Loppé

'In September 2021, Les Amis de Gabriel Loppé organized a round table evening dedicated to Loppé's memory in the salons of the Majestic in Chamonix. The gallerist, mountaineer and member of the Alpine Club William Mitchell came especially from London to talk about his passion for Loppé's works.'

Antiques Trade Gazette

'Loppé pays homage to Mont Blanc'

'William Mitchell of the gallery, a keen climber himself, said the works were both studies, painted on the spot, for two gigantic canvases that Gabriel Loppé painted in the late 1870s and brought to London for exhibition.'

'Dealer William Mitchell: I still have Matterhorn on my mind'

'Dealer and mountaineer William Mitchell is fascinated by both the peak in real life and in a Doré depiction of first ascent.'

'Views of a vanishing world: Supply of mountain paintings begins to melt'

'Nineteen years after launching the annual 'Peaks and Glaciers' exhibition, dealer William Mitchell reflects that as the snow on the peaks themselves has contracted, so too has the supply of topographical Alpine scenes.'

'Brush in one hand, ice axe in the other'

'William Mitchell of John Mitchell Fine Paintings has published a monograph on the life and work of the artist Gabriel Loppé (1825-1913).'

BBC Radio 4

'James Hart Dyke - Mountain Painter'

New Scientist

'Painting at the top of Mont Blanc'

'James Hart Dyke set out to recreate the mountain-top paintings of 19th-century artist Gabriel Loppé. But climate change means the route to the summit is very different today.'
William Mitchell on Gabriel Loppé in Antiques Trade Gazette, 2021.