Alfons Walde was born on 8 February 1891 as the son of the teacher Franz Walde and Maria Walde (née Ritzer) in Oberndorf in Tyrol, then a district of St. Johann. In 1892 the family moved to Kitzbühel, where Alfons' father became headmaster. From 1903 he attended the secondary school in Innsbruck, which he graduated from in 1910 with excellent results. At this school he showed his artistic abilities for the first time in the form of Watercolour- and Tempera images in the style of expressionism.
From 1910 to 1914 Walde studied at the Vienna University of Technology. At this time he mostly stayed with his aunt in Kirchdorf in Upper Austria. He painted the farmsteads, fields and gardens with soft, warm watercolour tones. He exhibited his paintings for the first time in 1911 and 1913 in the bookshop Czichna and in the Vienna Secession from. Between 1914 and 1918, he served as a One-year volunteer with the Austrian Landesschützen Regiment and was promoted to the Cadets promoted, later to Ensign. His operational area was in South Tyrol at the Monte Piano and on Pasubio and in Bosnia. For its commitment to the World War I he has received several awards.
In 1917 he returned as Lieutenant Who then Kaiserschützen named troop from Bosnia and began to study again in 1918. Back home in Kitzbühel at the end of 1918, he painted Oil painting like Fair in Kitzbühel or Churchgoing. But he also created Actdrawings like Bathers at Schwarzsee or Naked back nude. In 1919 he joined forces with the Viennese working-class poet who had settled in Kitzbühel. Alfons Petzold Friendship and portrayed In 1920 he exhibited pictures again for the first time after the war, in Vienna. In 1924 he won 1st and 2nd prize in the competition of the Tyrolean Regional Transport Office. In 1925 he married Hilda Lackner from Kitzbühel. In the same year he took part in the 4. Biennale Romana d'Arte in Rome and received the prize of the Julius Reich Artists' Foundation. In 1927, he planned a new building for the Hahnenkamm lift the two station buildings, which still exist today despite two reconstructions of the railway.[1] For the arrivals hall of the first Innsbruck Central Station In 1928 he designed two large landscape paintings with the symbolic juxtaposition and under the title of North Tyrol and South Tyrol, to which, however, a draft of Rudolf Pride was brought forward.[2] 1928 saw the birth of his painting Lonely Alpine Pasture (Berghof, 1928)oil on cardboard, which found a buyer in 2009 for a price of € 390,000. In 1929 he built his mountain house on the Hahnenkamm, which became a social meeting place.
From then on, he also had his pictures printed as art prints and postcards in his own publishing house and thus marketed his artworks to the general public. After divorcing his first wife, Walde married Lilly Walter in 1930 and became the father of a daughter. In 1932 he painted pictures such as "Kaiser-Hochalm" and "Spätwinter". In that year he also designed his first official Tyrol poster. 1938 came the Gestapo several times in the house and due to defamation he was imprisoned for two months.[3] In 1940 he married for the third time, Ida Troppschuh, née Rossipal.
From 1946 onwards he devoted himself intensively to his work on architectural projects (mountain station hotels on the Hahnenkamm, 1948 plans for a new school building and 1953 design for his parents' tomb).[4] and on his 65th birthday in 1956 he received the title Professor. On 11 December 1958, Walde, who had long suffered from heart disease, suffered a heart attack at his sister's house and died.
Walde himself founded the Art publisher Alfons Waldewho distributed his most popular pictures as postcards and later also as art prints. He painted the most sought-after motifs himself in large numbers. "This increased production of pictures, however, brought him not only the reproach of being a mass painter but also widespread international popularity." (Günther Moschig in Walde 2005, p. 160). In addition, as early as 1930, numerous unauthorised copies, imitations and CounterfeitsWalde took legal action against them, but they still populate the market today.
For a long time it was little known that Walde also created a rich erotic oeuvre with numerous nudes, some of which have only recently been published.[5] For example, in the nude "Seated with leg folded over[6] he succeeded in creating a mysteriously erotic atmosphere through blurred drawings and colours.
Two of Walde's works were also sold for considerable sums in 2015. The work created around 1934 was sold for Lonely mountain farm, oil on cardboard, found a new buyer for € 350,000, while the 1944 painting Tyrolean mountain village (Auracher Kirchl) changed hands for € 400,000.
The famous Ascent was sold at an auction house in 2016 for 760,000 euros. Ascent of the skiers (oil on cardboard, 41 × 66 cm, framed - Walde himself was often a mountain guide in the Kitzbühel Alps) from around 1927 achieved € 965,300 at the Vienna Dorotheum during a hot spell in June 2021
[Excerpt from Wikipedia as of 31.12.2021].