(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
“Tiroler Bergdorf” (Auracher Kirchl), 1924, signed, dated A. Walde 24, label on the reverse: Alfons Walde Kitzbühel Tirol, oil on cardboard, 56.8 x 44.6 cm, framed

Certificate by Michael Walde-Berger (7 April 2022), from the Walde-Archive, available (no. D-LA-895).

Provenance:
Private Collection, Tyrol

From the expertise by Michael Walde-Berger:
Through this theme, the artist seems to have captured all the desires and fantasies of contemporary visitors to Tyrol in one work: “An idyllic mountain church encompassed by a wooded mountain landscape covered in snow in high winter. To complete the landscape, the social context of the two peasant women on their way to church and the farm in the background adds to the atmospheric narrative of this composition.” Thus the work was and is still called “Auracher Kirchl” because of the well-known neighbouring village of Kitzbühel.

Walde pursued this subject throughout his life due to the popularity of this motif.

I confirm that the work mentioned here is an original painting by Alfons Walde. It will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Alfons Walde with the above-mentioned archive number D-LA-895.

Alfons Walde deliberately chose the general title “Tyrolean Mountain Village” for the motif of the well-known, particularly picturesquely situated Baroque church in Aurach near Kitzbühel. He developed the image concept in 1924 for the design of an advertising poster for Tyrol; the charming combination of a small onion dome under a thick blanket of snow with the close grouping of houses became the epitome of Alpine landscape culture. In this early version of the popular motif, the light blue, the impasto and dynamically painted tower wall and the playfully placed accents of light green tones are captivating.