Kong Haakon VII

On a plaza in Oslo stands a bronze Kong Haakon VII, four and a half metres tall on a granite base. He leans forward, right hand holding his uniform cap over his chest, the coat lifting behind him in an imagined wind. His gaze is fixed on Akershus Fortress, and many people stop here to reflect on Norwegian history.

The story began in 1957, when the city announced a national competition and fifty-three Norwegian sculptors sent in proposals. Nils Aas, born in 1933, was still young when his design won. The unveiling followed in 1972, a hundred years after the king's birth. Critics often name the result a central work of Norwegian postwar sculpture. Aas's winning sketch included a steel circle, twice the height of the figure, set behind and above it. The circle was meant to give the monument room in a narrow street. Once the statue reached this open plaza, the circle lost its purpose, and the figure itself grew slimmer and more upright. It became his first major sculpture and remains one of his most important.

The slant came from a studio visit, where a long leaning rod showed the sculptor the beauty of a tilted line. Some read that wind as a mark of the king's steadfastness through the war years. Even the cap carries a story: held that way, it breaks military uniform rules. Its maker said he did not know that while working, and it probably would not have changed his mind. Others have likened the stretched body to Giacometti studies and to Marino Marini's Stravinsky, a figure close to a ship's figurehead.