ALFONS WALDE* (Oberndorf 1891 - 1958 Kitzbühel) Soldier mixed mdeia/paper 26 x 22.5 cm verso estate stamp Alfons Walde and inscribed Guta E. Berger, née Walde ESTIMATE € 6000 - € 12000 STARTING PRICE € 6000 Alfons Walde was born on February 8, 1891 as the son of the teacher Franz Walde and Maria Walde (née Ritzer). In 1892 the family moved to Kitzbühel, where Alfons' father became headmaster. From 1903 he attended secondary school in Innsbruck, which he graduated with distinction in 1910. It was at this school that he first demonstrated his artistic abilities in the form of watercolour and tempera paintings in the Expressionist style. From 1910 to 1914 Walde studied at the technical university in Vienna. At this time he mostly stayed with his aunt in Kirchdorf in Upper Austria. He painted the farms, fields and gardens with soft, warm watercolour tones. He first exhibited his pictures in 1911 and 1913 in the Czichna bookstore and in the Vienna Secession. Between 1914 and 1918 he enlisted as a one-year volunteer in the Austrian State Rifle Regiment and was promoted to cadet in 1915 and later to ensign. His area of operation was in South Tyrol on Monte Piano and Pasubio as well as in Bosnia. He received several awards for his service in the war. In 1917 he returned from Bosnia as an Imperial Rifle Lieutenant and began studying again in 1918. Back in his hometown of Kitzbühel at the end of 1918, he painted oil paintings such as "Fairy Market in Kitzbühel" and "Going to Church". But he also created nude drawings such as "Bather at the Schwarzsee" or "Naked Back Nude". In 1919 he became friends with the Viennese workers' poet Alfons Petzold, who had settled in Kitzbühel, and later also portrayed him. In 1920 he exhibited pictures again for the first time after the war, in Vienna. In 1924 he won first and second prize in the Tyrolean Transport Office competition. In 1925 he married Hilda Lackner from Kitzbühel. In the same year she took part in the Biennale Romana in Rome and received the Julius Reich Artist Foundation Prize. From then on, he had his pictures printed as posters and postcards by his own publishing house and thus marketed his works of art to the general public. In 1930, after divorcing his first wife Lilly Walter, Walde married and had a daughter. In 1932 he painted, among other things, pictures such as "Kaiser-Hochalm" and "Late Winter". This year he also designed his first official Tyrol poster. In 1940 he married for the third time. From 1946 he devoted himself intensively to his work on architectural projects and received the title of professor on his 65th birthday in 1956. On December 11, 1958, Walde, who had been suffering from a heart condition for a long time, suffered a heart attack in his sister's house and died. Walde himself founded the art publisher Alfons Walde in 1923, which sold his most popular images as postcards and later as art prints. He painted many of the most popular motifs himself. In addition to being accused of being a mass painter, this increased image production also brought him widespread international popularity. In addition, as early as 1930, numerous unauthorised copies, imitations and forgeries were created, which Walde took legal action against, but which still populate the market today. Further artists and styles: Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Herbert Boeckl, Carl Moser, Franz Wiegele, Robin Christian Andersen, Anton Faistauer, Franz Sedlacek, Albin Egger-Lienz, Secession, Expressionism, Art Nouveau, New Objectivity PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and, the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.