Niels Henrik Abel
The Niels Henrik Abel monument stands on Abelhaugen, a hill in the southwestern Palace Park in Oslo. Gustav Vigeland modelled the sculpture, which was installed in 1908.
Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who lived from 1802 to 1829 and transformed mathematical research. He was born on Finnøy near Stavanger and grew up in Gjerstad. At Oslo Cathedral School, Bernt Michael Holmboe encouraged his talent and introduced him to advanced mathematics. Abel proved that the general fifth-degree equation cannot be solved through algebraic methods. He published that proof at his own expense in 1824, then developed influential work on elliptic and abelian functions.
The monument stands among other sculptures by Vigeland, including one depicting Camilla Collett. Abel died from tuberculosis at twenty-six, after a life shaped by poverty and poor health. Norway also remembers him through busts, statues, granite monuments and memorial benches in Finnøy and Gjerstad.
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