Alfons Walde

Alfons Walde was born on February 8th, 1891 in Oberndorf. His first exhibition took place in Innsbruck in 1911, another one – this time at the Secession in Vienna – followed in 1913. The first exhibition after WWI also took place in Vienna. In 1924 he began to design posters for tourism advertisements in Tyrol as well as postcards with his iconic landscape and snow paintings. In 1956 he received the title ‘professor’ and died two years later in Innsbruck. The painting ‘Aurach bei Kitzbühel’ (Aurach near Kitzbühel) shows one of his most famous subjects, the church of Aurach. He first painted this subject in 1923 and repeated it several times in the following years with small variations. In 1924 he even won a competition by the tourist office for the design of an advertisement for Tyrol, also depicting the small church. The painting shows snowy Aurach near Kitzbühel with the small church and an imposing mountain slope in the background. The bell tower of the church dominates the painting and invites the gaze of the viewer. A few people have braved the snowy weather and dared to leave their cozy homes, wrapped in warm clothes. Two women – one in a black coat and the other wearing a bright red cape – have met to exchange a few words in the middle of the snowy village. The subject of small groups of people stopping to talk to each other is found in many of Walde’s works. This repetition of subjects and figures as well as the colours used in this painting are characteristic of the artist. Especially the small red accents, which interrupt the otherwise more muted colour palette, are found in almost every painting of Alfons Walde. Either in the form of a red cape as in this case, or a red cloth hanging on the balcony of a building. His famous blue shadows in contrast with the white snow give the landscape more depth, they accentuate the structure of the mountain, as well as the onion dome of the bell tower. Walde perfected his pastose style of painting, which he also uses masterfully in this artwork. He almost achieves a relief by sculpting several layers of paint on top of each other. In this painting the artist combines a landscape as well as the view of a city and his famous group of figures – all unique features of Alfons Walde’s style.