Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrović (15 August 1883 – 16 January 1962) was a Croatian and Yugoslav sculptor, architect, and writer.

He was the most prominent modern Croatian sculptor and a leading artistic personality in contemporary Zagreb. He studied at Pavle Bilinić's Stone Workshop in Split and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he was formed under the influence of the Secession.

He traveled throughout Europe and studied the works of ancient and Renaissance masters, especially Michelangelo, and French sculptors Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, and Aristide Maillol.

He was the initiator of the national-romantic group Medulić. He advocated the creation of art of national features inspired by heroic folk songs.

During the First World War, he lived in emigration. After the war, he returned to Croatia and began a long and fruitful period of sculpture and pedagogical work.

In 1942 he emigrated to Italy, in 1943 to Switzerland and in 1947 to the United States. He was a professor of sculpture at Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

With his Deed of Donation to the Croatian People of 1952, he donated numerous masterpieces, impressive architecture, and refined spaces managed by the Ivan Meštrović Museums.

The constituents of the Museums are located in four locations:

• his home and studio in Zagreb – The Meštrović Atelier
• the family villa – The Meštrović Gallery in Split
• renovated Renaissance castello – The Meštrović’s Crikvine – Kaštilac in Split,
• and in Otavice – The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, whence his family originated.

In these spaces, visitors have the opportunity to enjoy hundreds of his works.

Sources: Ivan Meštrović Museums, Wikipedia