As a young, aspiring artist Gustav Vigeland made several study tours abroad. On these trips, he was influenced by the art movements of the period. In his sketch-like works from the first half of the 1890s, we can see impressionist traits, and several of the works from the 1890s are influenced by Realism in the depictions of weary human figures. During this period Vigeland is also often associated with Symbolism; he directed his focus inward, to probe the life of the human soul.

During the 1890s, Vigeland had two solo exhibitions in Kristiania (Oslo). Both of them caused a great stir. The first took place in the Christiania Art Association in 1894 and consisted of 51 works. In the second exhibition, in the Diorama premises in 1899, he presented revised versions of several of the same sculptures. The changes that had occurred during the course of the 1890s thus became visible. These sculptures had become more thoroughly rendered, with slender, elongated figures.

Gustav Vigeland, A Worker, 1900. Plaster.

Vigeland modeled this motif three times: first a small version in Paris in 1893 (exhibited at his first solo exhibition in 1894), then two larger versions in 1897–98 and 1900. Of the 1897–98 version, only the head has been preserved.

The worker was a timely subject, and Vigeland drew inspiration from the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier, known for his statues of laborers. In contrast to Meunier’s heroic depictions, Vigeland portrays an old and worn-out man, marked by both physical and psychological strain. The sculpture does not express social or political protest, but rather an empathetic attitude toward the vulnerable and those whom life had treated harshly.

Gustav Vigeland, Boy, 1899. Plaster.

In 1898, Vigeland was commissioned to create a fountain for Hamar Brewery. He sculpted this young boy standing with his hands behind his back on a plinth designed as a fountain with four animal heads. The fountain was intended as a gift to the city for its 50th anniversary the following year. However, the client was dissatisfied with the result, objecting to the boy’s nudity and considering him too slender.

Vigeland jokingly wrote to a friend: “When I send the figure, I shall also send a fig leaf made of tin for them to hang on.” When asked to make the arms and legs thicker, he responded firmly: “This statue cannot be altered; it would be ruined in that case.” He emphasized that the issue was not technical, but artistic: “This figure is a character, a person, a single individual; every part of the figure depends on the others, they are in harmony. By changing one thing, even just one, the boy ceases to be the person I intended him to be.”

Gustav Vigeland, The Beggars, 1908. Plaster.

The Beggars reflects how, during this period, Gustav Vigeland was influenced by realism in his depictions of elderly, worn-out individuals. The sculpture was first created in 1898, but this is the plaster original for a larger bronze version completed in 1908.

In 1909, Vigeland—alongside Edvard Munch—was invited to participate in the Artists' Autumn Exhibition at Charlottenborg as one of two foreign artists, where The Beggars was among the works shown. The exhibition was a success, and according to the newspaper Politiken, it was Vigeland and Munch who saved it “by casting into it a glimpse of the unfamiliar and the unexpected.” Social-Demokraten described Vigeland as “a brilliant artist—at the moment perhaps the finest sculptor in the three Nordic countries.”

The sculpture attracted considerable attention when it was exhibited at the World’s Fair in Brussels in 1910 and again at the International Art Exhibition in Rome in 1911. According to reports from Professor Halfdan Strøm, The Beggars was especially noted by fellow artists and was given its own niche in Brussels. In Rome, it was described as one of Vigeland’s most striking works.

The earlier version of The Beggars from 1898 was also shown at the Norwegian exhibition in Helsinki in 1911, where Vigeland’s work received high praise. The director of the National Gallery, Jens Thiis, reported that Vigeland’s sculptures were met with “unanimous admiration.”

Gustav Vigeland, Accursed, 1891, Plaster

Acursed was Gustav Vigeland’s first life-sized sculpture, modeled during his first study trip to Copenhagen in 1891. The group depicts a young boy looking back, a bent-over man with a hand over his eye, a woman carrying an infant, and a dog—all moving forward. The sculpture was originally titled Cain and His Kin Fleeing, but Vigeland later changed the title, likely to give the work a more universal character.

When Accursed was exhibited at the National Art Exhibition in Kristiania in 1892, Vigeland was truly noticed for the first time. Aftenposten wrote that the sculpture “testifies to a remarkable and original talent and contains great promise for the artist’s future,” while Verdens Gang believed it showed that “with time, he will not shy away from the greatest of tasks.” Not everyone agreed, however—Dagbladet criticized the expression of the male figure, claiming it reflected “perhaps more physical pain than spiritual anguish.”

The sculpture bears the mark of the French neo-Baroque style, which Vigeland had the opportunity to study in Copenhagen. It combines different modes of expression—the man is expressive, the woman more idealized—and reveals his early efforts to master a complex composition. With this work, he demonstrated both technical skill and the ability to convey deep emotion. The 1892 exhibition established Vigeland, then only 23 years old, as one of the country’s most promising sculptors.