With an altitude of 1,800 metres, the Benediktenwand peak (Fig.  1) is still considered one of the most impressive mountains in the Bavarian Prealps and offers a complete view in all directions. Thanks to its exposed position, it offers a breath-taking 360° view: on one side we can see the alpine panorama of the Karwendel mountains with the Walchensee, on the other the view of the plain with Lake Starnberg. In particular, this panoramic mountain view presented here is on the Zillertal Alps, straddling the border between Italy and Austria.

 

 Fig. 1 - Benediktenwand

This detailed and scenographic alpine landscape was created by the artist through a dense sequence of perspective planes, in which several rows of imposing mountains follow one another; starting from the imaginative vegetation in the foreground, until reaching the most distant snowy peaks. Thanks to a clever use of colour, Walther Gasch gradually built the space in detail in paint, allowing the viewer’s gaze to perfectly distinguish the planes until seeing the last peak in the distance.

A very interesting feature of the painting, in addition to its high pictorial quality, is the way in which the artist has traced on the back a sort of map of the peaks which correspond to those painted on the front of the resin board. It should be added that the back of the work bears a quantity of information which the artist deemed necessary to share: in addition to his name, the title of the work, the date of realization, the geographical indications through the map, the author also inserts the technique of realization of the work Resin slab. White zinc gypsum = earth.| Egg tempera. It is also recommended Do not varnish!

 

Gasch studied at the Dresden Academy of Art in 1905, under Emanuel Hegenbarth and Oskar Zwintscher, and later with Richard Müller. He undertook study trips to France, Italy and Holland and in the early part of his career he painted mainly still lifes, landscapes and portraits, as well as studies of animals and birds.

After serving in the army during the First World War, Gasch was active in an association to help artists in Saxony, seeking financial assistance for artists returning from the front. He was particularly committed to the economic rights of the artistic community and served as spokesman for the “Provisional Revolutionary Council of Artists” one of two competing artists’ organizations in Dresden. Gasch’s group was more radical than its rival, known simply as the “Council of Artists” and included such Expressionist painters such as Oskar Kokoschka. Although the two groups eventually merged, none of Gasch’s demands were ever granted. He joined the Deutscher Künstlerverband Dresden (German Association of Artists of Dresden) founded in 1927 and from 1929 he taught engraving at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst (Institute of Graphics and Book Art) in Leipzig, where in 1937 he invented a new process for etching on sheets of synthetic hard resin, which made the metal plate obsolete and considerably reduced the loss of the finest strokes during printing.

 

With the rise of the NSDAP, the National Socialists, Gasch became a fervent member of the party. He soon became a leading figure in the party’s artistic circles in Dresden and from 1933 was head of the Saxon branch of the NSDAP’s Commission for Fine Arts.

Like many other German artists, musicians and writers, Gasch flourished under the regime. As a member of the Reich Association of Fine Artists, he was closely involved in the “Great German Art Exhibition”, the great exhibition of Nazi propaganda of German art held at the German Art House in Munich in 1939, at which this work was presented, as attested by the label on the back. (Fig. 2).

 

Fig. 2 - Label of the Great German Art Exhibition 1939 held in the German Art House in Munich

 

The artist signed the painting on the front with his name in runic letters – an ancient Germanic alphabet – and also the back is meticulously engraved with the same character.

The very detailed inscription on the back refers (top right) to the peaks Hochis-spitze and Hintere sonnenspitze with an emphasis on Sonn wendegebirge (translated: Solstice Mountain) where an ancient medieval tradition of Germanic mould celebrates the day of the Winter Solstice (Yule), to celebrate the return of the sun. To underline the accent, the artist inserted a small symbol whose four parts indicate the so-called “Fire Festivals”, i.e., the two solstices and the two equinoxes.