To mark the 25th anniversary of Peaks & Glaciers, Antiques Trade Gazette spoke to William Mitchell about his parallel interests in Alpine paintings and mountaineering, and how an intimate knowledge of the mountains continues to inform the annual exhibition at John Mitchell Fine Paintings.
William published his first Peaks & Glaciers catalogue in the same year that he climbed the Matterhorn. Twenty-five years later, he has climbed at least fifty Alpine peaks and continues to use that first-hand experience when researching paintings for the exhibition. Only topographically accurate and identifiable views are included, with research into lesser-known locations sometimes involving weeks of studying maps, photographs, guides and other sources.
“I love mountains,” William tells ATG. “Fundamentally, I love the silence.”
The Matterhorn takes a particularly prominent place in Peaks & Glaciers 2026. One of the exhibition’s highlights is Gustave Doré’s The Ascent of the Matterhorn, Arrival at the Summit, a watercolour and gouache of 1865 commemorating Edward Whymper’s historic first ascent. William acquired the recently rediscovered work at Christie’s New York in February 2026 for $66,040. Two other original works from Doré’s celebrated Matterhorn series are in the Musée d’Orsay.
The feature also looks back at William’s introduction to mountaineering while working in France with Old Master specialist Eric Turquin and at the subsequent development of Peaks & Glaciers. The 25th anniversary selection includes Alpine paintings by E.T. Compton, Alexandre Calame, Charles-Henri Contencin, Jacques Fourcy and Gabriel Loppé.
Loppé has been particularly important to the exhibition series and to William’s research into nineteenth-century Alpine painting. He describes the artist as having “almost singlehandedly developed the idea that you can paint and climb at the same time.” The mountaineer and writer Leslie Stephen famously described Loppé as “the court painter to his Majesty Mont Blanc.”
Among the notable Loppé paintings handled by the gallery is Climbers descending from Mont Blanc to the Grands Mulets Hut, Chamonix, France of 1880. William acquired the painting at Beurret Bailly in Basel in 2015, when it became the most expensive Loppé yet sold at auction. It subsequently appeared in Peaks & Glaciers 2016 and was sold at Masterpiece later that year for £125,000.
William tells ATG that he approaches each Peaks & Glaciers catalogue with Leslie Stephen’s The Playground of Europe in mind, retaining its spirit of exploration, discovery and wonder in the mountains.
The Matterhorn itself remains unfinished business. Having previously stood at the point where the rope broke during Whymper’s tragic 1865 descent, William hopes to return to climb the more remote Zmutt Ridge:
“It’s still on my radar.”
