oil on board
53.3 x 46.8 cm (21 x 18 3/8 in.)
signed lower right; inscribed by the artist 'Bauern Sonntag' (on the artist's label attached on verso)

PROVENANCE
Acquired by the family of the present owner in the 1970s

We are grateful to Gert Amman and Michael Walde-Berger for providing their opinion of authenticity based on photographs.

LOT NOTES
Master of Alpine landscapes Alfons Walde, compatriot and friend of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, produced this painting, among a series of others, in the early 1930s. The piece, titled "Peasant Sunday," depicts a pair of nearly identical robust men set against brilliantly white snow and blue skies in the Austrian town of Kitzbuhel. Though it occupies a relatively small portion of the painting, the ultramarine sky, echoed in the Tyrolean aprons of the countrymen, is fundamental and quintessentially Waldean. Its initial uniformity gives way to a subtle modulation, revealing a delicate haze of clouds. The impasto, which becomes more pronounced toward the bottom of the panel, integrates the crisp freshly-fallen snow and voluminous blouses, rooting the figures in the environment (best seen at the right, where the sloping roof extends effortlessly to one of the sleeves). The smiling figures, as if mid-sentence, gaze off beyond the confine of the painting, prompting viewers to do the same. Walde's formal simplicity, from the abbreviated rectilinear figures to the limited color palette, produces an impactful high-contrast image, equally deferential to the landscape and to its admirers.