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1900 Berlin – 1986 Salzburg
- Title
- „Burghausen on the Salzach“
- Time
- 1933
- signed
- lower right "A. Birkle"
- Technique
- oil on cardboard
- Measurements
- 19½ × 27¼ in
Albert Birkle was born in 1900 in Berlin-Charlottenburg as the son of the painter Carl Birkle and the grandson of the court painter Gustav Bregenzer. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin from 1918 to 1924, was admitted to the Berlin Secession in 1923 as its youngest member, and joined the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1924.
Birkle developed a distinctive style – a religious, socially critical realism influenced by Expressionism and New Objectivity. Around 1930, the focus shifted to atmospheric landscapes. This winter scene of the southern German town of Burghausen has a surreal, fantastical effect typical of Birkle’s landscapes, with atmospheric fields of snow, trees swaying like seaweed, and a slightly distorted landscape. Two walkers in the foreground stroll along the Salzburg bank of the Salzach River, gazing at the old town of Burghausen with the St. Jakob Church across the river. The fortress, perched on a mountain ridge, was once the residence of the Bavarian dukes and is the longest castle complex in the world, stretching over half a mile.
The year before this painting was created, Birkle moved with his family to Salzburg, where he had a house and studio built on the slopes of the Gaisberg Mountain, overlooking the city. During World War II, his art was classified as degenerate. In 1946, he was granted Austrian citizenship, and in 1953, he was awarded the title of Professor. Until his death in 1986, Albert Birkle lived and worked as an established artist in his adopted home of Salzburg.