(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
“Almen und Gletscher”, signed A. Walde, on the reverse on the original artist’s label signed A. Walde, titled and dated in the artist’s handwriting Almen und Gletscher 1947, oil on cardboard, 42.5 x 67 cm, in original Walde-frame

Registered:
Alfons Walde Archive

The offered lot is the only known version of Almen und Gletscher with a figure (a mountaineer or alpine shepherd) in the foreground.

Compare:
Alfons Walde, exhibition catalogue, Leopold Museum, 2006, p. 118

Provenance:
Private Collection, Kitzbühel

In the late twenties and thirties, the paintings Holzknechte (1926/27), Frühling in Tirol (1928), Einsame Hausung (around 1930), Almen und Firn (1933) and Bergweiler (Weiler in Tirol) (1935) showed the village and alpine ambience in impasto-painted concepts.

The titles of these works are now directly associated with the term ‘Tyrol’. Soft hilltops and hollows stand in contrast to rocky, rugged mountain backdrops. It is only in the later village views that the scenery is assembled like a stage set, with no reference to reality, in which people perform the role of extras. And yet these subjects reflect the elemental power of new motifs.
The later thirties were marked by personal crises. Tourism stagnated and robbed Kitzbühel of its flair. The international guests, Walde’s customers, stayed away. His house was searched by the Gestapo several times in 1938. Walde was by now a well-known and internationally respected painter. His work was reproduced though his publishing house. The "Tyrolean Mountain Village*", the Auracher Kirchl, was distributed as colour postcards and art prints in large quantities. The prints underlined the popularity of his art and strong demand led to reproductions. The motifs were created with slight variations, but always showed his mastery of painting technique and colour...

(Gert Ammann – from the aforementioned catalogue)