Lot No. 1


Alfons Walde *


Alfons Walde * - Modern Art

(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
Der Aufstieg der Schifahrer / The ascent of the skiers, around 1927, signed A. Walde, oil on cardboard, 41 x 66 cm, framed

Registered:
Archive Alfons Walde

Provenance:
Family ownership, Germany

In the mid-1920s Walde captured all the magic of the ski world in Kitzbühel – skiers on the slopes, fashionable ladies wrapped in fur coats on the edge of the slopes, the après-ski milieu in conversation and affected posturing. With a sensitive finesse, Walde had observed this milieu, which was also to become a source of inspiration for his art. He saw himself as part of this society, found contacts and superficial friendships, but also a variety of subjects for his artistic work. The descriptions formed from these encounters can almost exclusively be assigned to a private and intimate sphere. It is again the world of women that fascinated him totally, “I did a lot of skiing here one month in the company of people from Berlin and was very glad of the diversion. There were unusual women, but now it’s time to work and earn. The money goes out quicker than it comes in” (letter to Ambrosi in Rome, 1925). Later, in 1927: “Thank God you’re alone. Society is the enemy of labour”.
This area of life belongs directly to man and to Walde’s work, and without knowledge of these circumstances his pictorial motifs are difficult to understand. This applies to both groups – winter sports pictures as well as to milieu depictions. But if, in retrospect, today’s conception of the man and artist is related only to this one facet of his experience in Kitzbühel – as has been suggested in many recollections and information – one overlooks the precise artistic potency of the painter Walde, who, as it seems today, in no other phase broke new ground as resoundingly as in the mid-1920s. It was only from the secure foundation of selling his work that he could also pursue his own ideas – ideas which he had just reconceived in those years and brought him new inspiration.
Far from the late Impressionist snow magic of Esterle or Rasim, but related to the melodious nuances of Artur Nikodem’s spring motifs and Wilhelm Nikolaus Prachensky’s massively built winter landscapes, Walde gave this metier of “snow” its own pictorial existence, especially in connection with the scenic image of man.

From: Gert Ammann. Alfons Walde, 4th edition, Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia, 2001

Specialist: Mag. Elke Königseder Mag. Elke Königseder
+43-1-515 60-358

elke.koenigseder@dorotheum.at

22.06.2021 - 16:00

Realized price: **
EUR 965,300.-
Estimate:
EUR 320,000.- to EUR 500,000.-

Alfons Walde *


(Oberndorf 1891–1958 Kitzbühel)
Der Aufstieg der Schifahrer / The ascent of the skiers, around 1927, signed A. Walde, oil on cardboard, 41 x 66 cm, framed

Registered:
Archive Alfons Walde

Provenance:
Family ownership, Germany

In the mid-1920s Walde captured all the magic of the ski world in Kitzbühel – skiers on the slopes, fashionable ladies wrapped in fur coats on the edge of the slopes, the après-ski milieu in conversation and affected posturing. With a sensitive finesse, Walde had observed this milieu, which was also to become a source of inspiration for his art. He saw himself as part of this society, found contacts and superficial friendships, but also a variety of subjects for his artistic work. The descriptions formed from these encounters can almost exclusively be assigned to a private and intimate sphere. It is again the world of women that fascinated him totally, “I did a lot of skiing here one month in the company of people from Berlin and was very glad of the diversion. There were unusual women, but now it’s time to work and earn. The money goes out quicker than it comes in” (letter to Ambrosi in Rome, 1925). Later, in 1927: “Thank God you’re alone. Society is the enemy of labour”.
This area of life belongs directly to man and to Walde’s work, and without knowledge of these circumstances his pictorial motifs are difficult to understand. This applies to both groups – winter sports pictures as well as to milieu depictions. But if, in retrospect, today’s conception of the man and artist is related only to this one facet of his experience in Kitzbühel – as has been suggested in many recollections and information – one overlooks the precise artistic potency of the painter Walde, who, as it seems today, in no other phase broke new ground as resoundingly as in the mid-1920s. It was only from the secure foundation of selling his work that he could also pursue his own ideas – ideas which he had just reconceived in those years and brought him new inspiration.
Far from the late Impressionist snow magic of Esterle or Rasim, but related to the melodious nuances of Artur Nikodem’s spring motifs and Wilhelm Nikolaus Prachensky’s massively built winter landscapes, Walde gave this metier of “snow” its own pictorial existence, especially in connection with the scenic image of man.

From: Gert Ammann. Alfons Walde, 4th edition, Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia, 2001

Specialist: Mag. Elke Königseder Mag. Elke Königseder
+43-1-515 60-358

elke.koenigseder@dorotheum.at


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kundendienst@dorotheum.at

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Auction: Modern Art
Auction type: Saleroom auction with Live Bidding
Date: 22.06.2021 - 16:00
Location: Vienna | Palais Dorotheum
Exhibition: 17.06. - 22.06.2021


** Purchase price incl. charges and taxes

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