Albertine - prostitution on the City Hall's wall
Tourists come from time to time to the Information Office in the City Hall and ask where the statue of the prostitute is. Here is the answer:
Prostitution was widespread in the old Vika district, an area of Oslo that disappeared in the replanning for the construction of the City Hall. In the relief Albertine, on a projecting corner of the building's eastern façade, Alfred Seland depicted this activity.
Some tourists claim, by the way, that the City Hall of Oslo is the only in the world that has a work of art depicting prostitution on a wall.
In his novel Albertine from 1886, Christian Krohg tells of the poverty that drove young girls into public prostitution. The relief is a monument of over this shady side of the past.
Alfred Seland's work was carried out in the years 1939 to 1948. The relief was given the name Albertine and shows a woman, rather overdressed, in a style favoured by the prostitutes of the period. She stands between an older man, who is probably the customer, and another man, whose type is more obscure, possibly the pimp. The scene can also be interpreted as the story of the girl's choice between the rich man's questionable favour and a sweethart from her own class.
Albertine, relief by Per Seland on the City Hall's eastern wall.
Rådhuset
0037 Oslo
Redaktør: Fagsjef Bente M. D. Bastiansen
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