Horse-Drawn Sleigh

Following his return from the First World War as a winner of multiple decorations as a lieutenant in the Kaiserschützen (Imperial Troopers), Alfons Walde resumed his studies at the Technical University in Vienna. Back in Kitzbühl at year-end 1918, he painted works in oil, which today are among his most well-known pictures, such as ‘Fair in Kitzbühl’ or ‘Going to Church’. Parallel to this, many nude drawings were created, of which a number were shown in a dedicated exhibition in Innsbruck in 1921.
The early work ‘Horse-Drawn Sleigh’ from 1919 still reveals the influence of such fellow artists as Albin Egger-Lienz or Egon Schiele, whom Alfons Walde met in Vienna before the war. It is an especially rare subject, yet the horse-drawn sleigh still fits with Walde’s general interest
in rural winter motifs.