Sanctuary of Notre Dame della Guerison, Courmayeur

MacWhirter was born in Edinburgh where he studied at the Trustees Academy under Robert Scott Lauder and John Ballantyne. He spent long periods sketching and studying outdoors and exhibited his first picture at the Royal Scottish Academy when aged only 14. He was elected an associate member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1867 and shortly after moved to London where he established a reputation as a fine landscape artist. He travelled widely in Europe and America, the Alps being a great inspiration. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, Grosvenor Gallery and elsewhere. Works by MacWhirter are in many public collections. The present work reflects the artist’s love of the Alps and would have been painted on the spot during one of his many visits to Switzerland and Italy. Some of his alpine studies would have been used as sketches to be worked up into larger studio paintings. The most notable of his large exhibition Alpine paintings is June in the Austrian Tyrol, purchased by the Chantrey Bequest in 1892 and now in the collection of the Tate Gallery.