Artist

Ivan Meštrovic

born Vrpolje, Austria-Hungary 1883-died South Bend, IN 1962
Media - J0001988_1b.jpg - 89334
Ivan Mestrovic, © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0001988
Also known as
  • Ivan Mestrovic
Born
Vrpolje, Austria-Hungary
Died
South Bend, Indiana, United States
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Ivan Mestrovic grew up in a rural mountain village in Croatia. He was apprenticed to a stonecutter before attending the Academy of Art in Vienna, where his work attracted the notice of the Vienna Secessionists, who favored modern art and architecture. Mestrovic taught sculpture at the Syracuse University School of Art in New York and at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, where he died in 1962. He bequeathed his works to the Croatian people and was buried at the Most Holy Redeemer Church, which he had built in Otavice, in Croatia-Slovenia.