Gustav Vigeland was born in 1869 in Mandai, Norway and died in 1943. He spent his entire adult life creating a sculpture park in Oslo, Norway. The park contains 192 sculptures with over 600 figures all modeled full size without the help of assistants or other artists. Some are in bronze while others are in granite.

The first sculpture, in what was called Frogner Park, is the fountain. It contains a unique set of images depicting people combined with trees and representing the span of life from childhood to old age.

Vigeland created his sculptures in plaster and then he had artisans and craftsmen make the final bronze and stone statues.

He depicts all phases of man from the very young to the very old. Some are sad and some are happy. As you walk around the park you are struck by many things. First is that he truly has the unusual gift of making an inanimate object appear to be alive. This, in my view, is the pinnacle of a sculptor's goal. The sculptor who can depict life in a stone statue has a rare talent. One is also struck by his use of fat to indicate age. It is not so much the presence of fat as the distribution of fat.

At the highest point in the park is a monolith made from a single block of granite. It contains 121 figures and is 46 feet (14.12 meters) high. Vigeland modeled this sculpture in 1924-25, but it took three stone carvers working from 1929 until 1943 to complete it, just before Vigeland's death. At the bottom are inert bodies while at the top are small children ascending in a spiral. I feel that it shows man’s struggle for existence and his yearning for spiritual uplifting. This park was clearly the highlight of my visit to Norway.