The Trees of Life were modeled by Vigeland among 1906 and 1914. The trees were made out of bronze. There are four different groups, and five trees per each group. They are placed on each corner of the fountain. These trees were the first time Vigeland showed and shaped the way he perceived the cycle of life. The first five trees are of childhood. The statues are 2 meters high, the tree crowns are broad and base is narrow, the middle is open. The Trees of Life have three different meanings, man surrounded by life-giving nature, the different stages of life form childhood to adult and to old age, and the life cycle and regeneration. They all have realistic and symbolic motifs. The following are my interpretations of the individual Trees of Life.
1. Swarm of eighteen infants playing in the tree and that is where all of our lives begin.
2. A boy all by himself awakening to puberty, and listening to the call of life. Said to be a portrait of Vigeland in his younger years.
3. Two boys climbing and playing in the tree top.
4. Three little girls standing around at the foot of the tree talking quietly.
5. Known as 'The Swallow'. She has mixed expressions on her face. 'The Swallow' is a girl probably around the age of 14. She is flying through the tree at a diagonal slant. She has her arms across her chest. As if she is clutching her developing breasts. Her eyes are wide-open, in fear and amazement. She is looking for what is going to happen next. 'The Swallow' represents to me, a girl just entering puberty.
1. A young woman dreamily leaning outward from the tree.
2. A young boy and girl looking dreamily at each other, standing forehead to forehead.
3. Young man standing behind a young woman.
4. Man bent over a woman who is crouched down; in a passionate embrace.
5. Young man lost in thought, standing within or under the tree space, known as 'The Dreamer'.
2, 3, and 4 depict different love scenes between young men and woman.
1. A woman in a melancholy attitude is sitting on a tree that is shaped like an animal.
2. Small child placed alone in the tree. Vigeland also has said that this is a portrait of himself. He said that he often felt as if he was part of the trees himself when he was young. In Mandal where Vigeland grew-up there are lovely trees all over the place. He would fall asleep and wake-up in them and felt as if he was in a way joined with the trees.
3. A couple plummets downwards through the tree, intertwined by branches.
4. A man with an anguished expression climbs and coils himself around the tree at a horizontal position.
5. An angry man trying to drive away babies in a tree-top.
1. Man clinging to the tree.
2. Old woman and small boy.
3. Old man and boy.
4. Old man sitting clinging to the tree, clinging on for his life.
5. Skeleton clinging to the tree and has its self become part of the tree.
1 and 2 show the new generation that will continue the course of life once the old are gone.
The way Vigeland designed the trees, they are in chronological order, so the theme flows smoothly from one tree to the next, and from one group to the next. WHen the cycle reaches death, it flows smoothly into the next tree, which is the start of a new life. The circle of life is always flowing, never really changing, it just is altered at varying degrees, and the circle never stops. We come from humans and then die and decay and become one with nature.
11. Tone Wikborg, Gustav Vigeland-His Art and Sculpture Park, translated by Ruth Waaler (Oslo: Emil Moestue as, 1994), p. 32