(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
“Kirchstiege”, beginning of the 1920ies, monogrammed A. W., label (fragment) on the reverse in the artist’s handwriting: Alfons ... No 1 “Kirchstiege”; as well as label: Alfons Walde, Kitzbühel Tirol, oil tempera on cardboard, 70 x 75 cm, mounted to wooden frame by the artist along the edges with nails, framed

Registered:
Alfons Walde Archive

Provenance:
Dr. Franz Stiassny (1902–1992), Austria/Israel - directly from the artist
his heirs

Exhibited and full-page ill. in catalogue:
Tiroler Künstler. Exhibition in Westphalia - Rhineland. Autumn 1925 – Spring 1926 - organiser: city of Gelsenkirchen / Tyrolean association of artists "Heimat" / artist group "Wage", Innsbruck, registered under 172

The landscape and residential areas in and around Kitzbühel offered Alfons Walde a broad-based starting point for his artistic journey. It offered a highly traditional basis for his vivid, diverse picture of life, which was shaped by the mentality and nature of urban and rural people. In the union of nature and man, a choice of motifs arose that was based on both sides of the coin. This may be a narrow basis for the artist’s supra-regional importance, but Walde’s oeuvre demonstrates how rich this foundation could be in terms of experiential values. Anyone who knows how to absorb the Kitzbühel landscape experiences the richness of this region; anyone who can approach the people of this region feels close to Walde’s images of people.
Gert Ammann, Alfons Walde, 4th edition, Tyrolia Verlag, 2001

“He succeeded in capturing a folk force that no longer exists today, and in capturing it with the sweeping lines and surfaces of Expressionism, saving it from the Salon Tyrolean. Thus, Walde will always retain a firm place in Tyrolean art as the painter of the indestructible and unconsumed elements of the people of the Unterland.”
Erich Egg: Kunst in Kitzbühel, Stadtbuch Kitzbühel, vol. III, 1970

Blog post: “HAPPY WITH WALDE” – the story behind this painting