‘Any half-good work’ by the artist-mountaineer ‘seems to get several phone lines booked’ says expert, William Mitchell.
The strength of the market for Gabriel Loppé (1825–1913) was highlighted by Antiques Trade Gazette following the appearance of two small Alpine paintings at auction in Surrey. Despite their diminutive scale, the works attracted significant interest, reflecting Loppé’s growing reputation and the particular demand for his paintings of glaciers and the high Alps.
An expert in both painting and mountaineering, as well as an accomplished photographer, Loppé occupies a distinctive position in the history of nineteenth-century Alpine painting. Born in Montpellier and largely self-taught, he began climbing during the 1850s, at precisely the moment when both mountaineering and painting en plein air were becoming increasingly popular.
Loppé nearly always painted on the spot and developed friendships with climbers from France, Switzerland and Britain, many of whom subsequently became his clients. His combination of artistic ability and practical mountaineering experience enabled him to depict the Alps in a radically different way from many of his contemporaries. He is now recognised as the first artist to portray mountains from a climber’s point of view and the first painter to work extensively at high altitude, recording the glaciers, peaks and changing atmospheric conditions of what the French call la haute montagne.
Mont Blanc became particularly closely associated with Loppé. The author, critic and mountaineer Leslie Stephen, who climbed with the artist, memorably described him as “the court painter to his Majesty Mont Blanc”.
Although Loppé’s paintings were in considerable demand during his lifetime, interest in his work has increased substantially in recent years. Four dedicated museum exhibitions have taken place over the last decade, accompanied by a series of increasingly strong auction results. The market reached a significant milestone at Artcurial in 2022, when a monumental view of the Grands Charmoz at Chamonix with the Mer de Glace sold for €320,000 (£271,185), establishing an auction record for the artist.
A year-long exhibition at the Musée des Ursulines in Mâcon, France, had also recently celebrated the bicentenary of Loppé’s birth. Against this background, two further major prices were achieved for his paintings in London and Geneva in December 2025.
The Surrey auction provided further evidence that demand is not confined to Loppé’s larger paintings. Collectors have shown particular enthusiasm for his so-called “pure glacier” subjects, rather than his more conventional mountain landscapes, and one of the two small paintings offered was a particularly characteristic example.
Crevasses on the Mer de Glace, Mont Blanc, Chamonix, estimated at £4,000–6,000, eventually reached £27,000 before selling to a private collector in France. The result was considerably higher than previous auction prices for Loppé paintings of a comparable size and represented the highest price achieved for the artist at a UK auction outside London. It surpassed the £20,000 paid for a larger glacial landscape at Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Taunton in 2021.
William Mitchell of John Mitchell Fine Paintings was the underbidder on the £27,000 painting. Drawing on his first-hand knowledge of the Alps, William identified the landscape as the Glacier Envers du Requin in the Vallée Blanche, an area now known as one of the world’s best-known off-piste ski runs.
The work possessed many of the characteristics that make Loppé’s glacier paintings particularly sought after. Protruding seracs, deep crevasses and swirling clouds combine to give the scene what William described as an “other worldly” quality. He also suggested that the exceptional Loppé prices recorded in December may have contributed to the level of competition at the Surrey sale.
“This was very high price for a tiddler,” William told ATG. “In all likelihood it will flush out more works from English collectors, as Victorian climbers were by far his main buyers.”
William was, however, successful in acquiring the second Loppé painting offered in the Surrey sale.
John Mitchell Fine Paintings has played a significant role in the renewed study and appreciation of Gabriel Loppé and nineteenth-century Alpine painting. William has handled around ninety paintings by Loppé since 2001 and in 2018 published the first English-language monograph dedicated to the artist, bringing together extensive research into Loppé’s life as a painter, mountaineer, traveller and photographer.
At the time of the Antiques Trade Gazette report, William was preparing the 25th edition of Peaks & Glaciers, John Mitchell Fine Paintings’ annual exhibition devoted to paintings and drawings of the Alps, which opened on 18 February 2026. Since its inception, Peaks & Glaciers has brought together works by many of the leading painters of the European mountains, with particular emphasis on identifiable, topographically accurate Alpine landscapes.
William has also contributed to the growing international recognition of Loppé through museum exhibitions. In 2023, he curated an important exhibition devoted to the artist at the Forte di Bard in the Aosta Valley, Italy.
The combination of museum exhibitions, new research and increasingly competitive auction results has helped bring Loppé to a wider audience. His most characteristic paintings offer something more than conventional nineteenth-century mountain scenery: they were frequently made by an artist who had physically climbed into the landscape he was depicting.
As William observed of the increasingly competitive market: “Any half-good Loppé now seems to get several phone lines booked and I guess I have to accept the part that I have played in that.”
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