A prolific mountaineer as well as a painter and photographer, Loppé was largely self-taught. Working at a time when both mountaineering as an activity and painting en plein air were rapidly growing in popularity, he was the first artist to work at higher altitudes during climbing expeditions and to depict ‘la haute montagne’.
“He was the founder of the peintre-alpiniste school of painting and with a brush in one hand and an ice axe in the other, his 88 years were lived with a great independence of spirit which rewarded him at every turn,” Mitchell writes in his introduction to the book.
The publication is the first work in English dedicated to Loppé and includes over 100 colour illustrations and some previously unpublished works across 200 pages.
The cover features one of his many Alpine paintings, showing the Matterhorn from the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt. It also shows one of the most recognisable images he ever produced: a photograph taken in 1902 when the artist was in his late 70s. It depicts the Eiffel Tower being struck by lightning.
Copies of the book can be purchased directly from the gallery for £40.
