Throughout his career, Vigeland was preoccupied with depicting the relationship between man and woman. He describes a varied and conflicting image of love, from intimacy and tenderness, to anguish and loneliness. In Vigeland’s representations the man is often the vulnerable one, the one who breaks down and in need of comfort.

During his stay in Paris in 1893, Vigeland visited the French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s (1840–1917) studio several times. Although he never met Rodin in person, he was most likely influenced by his art. Rodin’s depiction of love and sexuality, in particular, appear to have had a liberating effect on him. We can also see Rodin’s influence in Vigeland’s large relief Hell, which has much in common with the French sculptor’s The Gates of Hell.

It is in his representations of the vulnerable human being that Vigeland’s relevance chiefly lies. His depictions of angst, ostracism and loneliness tell us something about what it means to be human – even today.

Gustav Vigeland, Man and Woman, "The Bowed Down", 1898. Bronze.

This sculptural group was exhibited at Gustav Vigeland’s second solo exhibition in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1899. An earlier version of the group was modeled in Berlin in 1895 (OKK.VM.S.0856). A comparison of the two versions reveals a clear stylistic development in Vigeland’s work—from a rougher, more sketch-like form in the earlier version to a more refined surface and greater richness of detail in the later. This evolution reflects Vigeland’s growing technical skill and his gradual movement toward a more classical sculptural expression.

Gustav Vigeland, The Kiss, 1921. Marble.

The group was executed in plaster in 1921, based on a smaller model of the same motif from 1898 (OKK.VM.S.0836). An assistant first blocked out the form in plaster, after which Gustav Vigeland took over the work himself. For Vigeland, who usually modeled in clay, this was a challenging process. Architect Harald Aars described it in his diary on March 1, 1921:

"So V. saws off a limb here and a limb there, adds plaster or files it down. A large section of the back had been removed, and his right calf lay beside it. One has no idea what a work of patience this is. Hundreds of small bowls must be filled with plaster, stirred with water—and no sooner has one begun than the plaster sets again—so, new plaster, over and over again [...] But the image he used to describe this way of working gives a small sense of what it demands: 'I feel like a microscopically small bird pecking and pecking with its beak on an endlessly vast surface'. [...] He would have started from scratch in clay if he had had confidence in the Norwegian plaster casters, but everything goes awry and crooked."

The marble version was pointed in Carrara in 1921.

Gustav Vigeland, Man and Woman, "Adoration", 1908. Plaster.

Vigeland explores the charged relationship between man and woman. Unusually for its time, he lets the woman assume the role of the strong and dominant figure. The man kneels and tries to hold on to her, but she clearly emerges as the controlling force in the composition.

Gustav Vigeland, Man and Woman, "Consolation", 1893. Plaster.

This relief was exhibited at Gustav Vigeland’s first solo exhibition in 1894. Among the displayed works were several smaller groups that Vigeland most often titled simply “man and woman.” Vigeland’s friend, art historian and museum director Jens Thiis, summarized:

“Deep sorrow is the emotion that resonates through all these groups. They deal with broken happiness, they speak of longing and powerlessness, of despair and consolation, of grief and tenderness in a strange mixture... This is an art that is profoundly modern, as we tend to call the art that is a true child of its time. It was born of a deeply pessimistic transitional period, a time of boundless desires and consuming doubt, a time of deep but torn and bleeding emotions.”

Gustav Vigeland, Young Man and Woman, 1906. Marble.

The desire for anatomical analysis and naturalistic representation is never an end in itself for Vigeland. What he seeks is the inner experience of the relationship between man and woman. The figures stand close together, yet they look past one another—pensive, each lost in their own world.

Gustav Vigeland, Man and Woman, "The Night", 1898. Plaster.

This sculpture was shown at Gustav Vigeland’s second solo exhibition in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1899. It explores the duality of night—as a time for rest, but also for unrest, sorrow, and solitude. Vigeland captures both intimacy and distance in a single gesture: the bodies are physically close, yet there is a psychological abyss between them.

Gustav Vigeland, Hell II, 1897. Plaster.

At the center of this vision of hell sits Satan, surrounded by the damned. The Hell gate by Auguste Rodin must have been an inspiring influence on the artist, while the pessimistic theme also reflects Vigeland's own dark state of mind at the time. The relief was the main piece at Vigeland's solo exhibition in 1899 and was later acquired by the National Gallery in bronze. The first version of the motif, modeled in 1894, was destroyed by the artist himself.

Gustav Vigeland, Fabritius' Angel, 1900. Plaster.

The angel is a gravestone monument for the Fabritius family, likely commissioned by Jonathan Julius Aars Fabritius (1852-1916). Aars Fabritius was the heir to the Fabritius printing press in Kristiania, a collector of fine art, and a generous donor to the National Gallery. The sculpture depicts an angel in quiet contemplation and was carved from Italian Carrara marble in a rented shop space at the corner of Rosenkrantz Street and Christian IV Street in Oslo. The work was completed and installed at Our Savior's Cemetery on October 26, 1900. The preserved plaster model is now part of the Vigeland Museum's collection.