Walde

Alfons Walde 1891-1958

Kitzbuhel, from where Fantasy Bob has recently returned, is one of the world's premier ski resorts.  It is also the home to the only artist who has really successfully merged ski-ing and painting - not activities that can easily be done at the same time.  But that poor joke should be ignored and the skill of Alfon Walde celebrated.  FB has no idea if he was any great shakes as a skier, but he certainly was a fine artist.

Alfons Walde was born in  near Kitzbuhel and spent much of his life there.  In a series of paintings made from the 1930s on, he managed to capture the essential spirit of the ski slopes at a time when interest in winter sports was booming.  His images continue to have resonance and are reproduced and imitated in promotional literature for the Alps.  FB reproduces Walde's most famous image below, which FB knows as Skier in a Simmit, but which he suspects has a far more interesting title in German.  He hopes and expects that it is instantly recognisable to his handful of readers.

For reasons which defy FB's understanding, Walde did not look to cricketing themes to widen his work.  Snow covered mountains and hearty Alpine figures were his dominant imagery.  But he did venture into more racy areas.  Walde was also a bit of a ladies' man - in fact there was no bit of him that was not a ladies' man.  FB is greatly impressed that Walde managed to bring ski-ing and painting together.  But to bring ski-ing, painting and the erotic together is achievement at an altogether higher level.

This young lady's approach to ski wear did not seem to have any contemporary imitators as far as FB's recent researches on the pistes could establish.  He may have to return to investigate some areas of the mountain he failed to search.

Alfons Walde. Test Match Quality. Black Run Skill.