Gabriel Loppé ( 1825 - 1913 )

La Jonction: the confluence of the Arve and Rhône rivers at Geneva, Switzerland


La Jonction: the confluence of the Arve and Rhône rivers at Geneva, Switzerland


oil on canvas
9½ x 13¾in. (23.5 x 35cm.)
signed and dateable to December 1871

Peaks & Glaciers 2021 cat p.8

item sold

Loppé’s wintry oil study depicts the meeting point between the Rhône and the Arve rivers. A tourist hotspot in the summers, the contrasting colours at the rivers’ confluence are remarkable. The silted and creamy coloured Arve river descending from above Chamonix clashes with the turquoise waters of the Rhône as it empties from Lake Geneva bound for Marseille. With great skill Loppé captures here the deep and set-in cold amidst the shrubbery and poplars that line the river. A few people can be seen out on the frozen river by the watermill and the towers of Geneva’s cathedral can be indistinctly made out in the far distance.

This pochade as Loppé referred to these spontaneous sketches in oils, is a reminder that Geneva was home to the Loppé family for over twenty-five years and the city where he first made a name for himself as a painter.

Gabriel Loppé