Alfons Walde *
(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
“Wirtshaus in Tirol” (Tyrolean Inn), c. 1922, later signed A. Walde, on the reverse estate stamp and written confirmation by Guta E. Berger, nee Walde, oil on cardboard, 54.5 x 60 cm, framed
Registered:
Archive Alfons Walde

Provenance:
Sale, Wiener Kunst Auktionen, Vienna, 1 October 1996, lot 153
Private Collection, Austria

“All emphasize is placed on making the outline as expressive as possible and to show with pure, raw, unmodulated colors the picture as original in its effects as these people in life.”

Heinrich Hammer, 1921, cited in Amman, 2001, p. 56

Alfons Walde, who chose to live in Kitzbühel rather than Vienna after the war, drew his artistic inspiration from the familiar surroundings of the mountains and a strong, vibrant folk culture. In the early 1920s, genre scenes dominated, which he took from everyday village life, but gave them a timelessly valid expression with his own pictorial language that emphasized the large form.

A strikingly modeling brushstroke determines this entertaining scene of peasants in the pub, who await the cool beer with palpable joy. A lively rhythm of green, red and white tones underlines the cheerfulness of the scene and lends the almost archaic, monumental depiction a humorously decorative note.