A young man sits on a stone and gazes over a church tower to the shining peak of Mont Blanc. It would not be difficult to attribute a spiritual meaning to the composition. This is, however, contradicted by the note carved into the wet paint, in which Coignet recorded the place, date and necessary changes to the composition. This is a rare evidence that a painter was already thinking about the realisation of a studio painting from a study taken outside. Coignet was internationally successful with his naturalistic landscapes of Italy and the Middle East, which he painted in his studio. Today, his importance is seen more in his plein-air oil studies.