The Mont Blanc: The Summit Paintings exhibition was held at Cromwell Place, South Kensington, from 27th September to 8th October 2023. Curated by John Mitchell Fine Paintings, the exhibition told the remarkable story of Hart Dyke’s 2022 expedition to the summit of Mont Blanc, following in the footsteps of the celebrated French painter and mountaineer Gabriel Loppé (1825–1913).
In August 1873, Loppé climbed Mont Blanc with the mountaineer and writer Leslie Stephen, reaching the summit shortly before sunset and painting the extraordinary panorama before him. Almost 150 years later, James Hart Dyke, accompanied by William Mitchell and a team of climbers led by renowned French mountaineer Christophe Profit, retraced Loppé’s historic route via the Grands Mulets. Reaching the summit on 8th July 2022, Hart Dyke spent nearly two hours at the top, painting two oil studies en plein air as the sun set and the immense triangular shadow of Mont Blanc extended across the landscape.
The Summit Paintings brought together these summit studies with paintings and sketches made throughout the expedition, as well as larger works subsequently developed in Hart Dyke’s studio. Through contemporary landscape painting and Alpine art, the exhibition told a story of reverence, perseverance and camaraderie, while paying tribute to Loppé and the tradition of the peintre-alpiniste.
The expedition also revealed a more poignant connection between the two artists. The dramatic retreat of the Mont Blanc glaciers since Loppé’s lifetime was clearly visible across the landscape, bringing the effects of climate change in the Alps into sharp focus. Hart Dyke’s paintings therefore recorded not only an exceptional mountaineering and artistic undertaking, but a mountain landscape transformed in the 150 years separating the two artists.
