An itinerant French artist, Charton settled in Chile in 1843 and composed his canvases based on the principles expounded by Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in his influential publications. The Road from Valparaíso to Santiago is an example of this, communicating in detail the landscape’s diverse flora and the titular road’s precarious curves. A companion to this painting exists, in which Charton painted a view looking in the opposite direction from this same road.