0002

It is said in Tyrol that the people of the Tyrolean Unterland are particularly open and sociable in contrast to people of other regions, and Alfons Walde, who was completely focused on his home region of Kitzbühel, seems to more than confirm this, as the "Begegnung" (“Encounter”) is one of his favourite motifs. From the very beginning, the artist devoted himself to portraying many different kinds of encounters – whether in twos or threes, with an oncoming farmer or with an imperial hunter, in front of the “Auracher Kirchl” in a Tyrolean mountain village, or on a Kitzbühel street.
In this painting, which is particularly charming from a pictorial point of view, two farm women pause briefly “Am Kirchweg” (“On the path to the church”) to exchange their news – probably something amusing, as indicated by the laughing expression of the woman on the left. With their picturesque traditional costumes, the bright red of one of the peasant women’s cloaks and their black hats complete with decorative ribbons, they make an extremely effective picture – especially, of course, as Walde has placed them in a magnificent late-winter landscape. It must have snowed only recently, for the snow still seems quite loose and the sun shining on it really makes it glow, spread in diffused shades of white, purple, violet and blue. Although influenced by Egger-Lienz in his expressively condensed pictorial language, Walde sets himself radically apart from the latter’s fateful, dramatic scenes: as Rudolf Leopold sums it up, “with his gaily coloured pictures” Walde may be described “as an optimistic antithesis”.
(Carl Kraus)