Ivan Meštrović

Ivan Meštrović 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. 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 the Syracuse University and from 1955 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

15 August 1883

Born on the same birth day (15 August): Albert Ballin • Alejandro González Iñárritu • Casey Burgener • Chuck Burgi • George Klein (inventor) • Gerty Cori • Giorgos Mouzakis • Jarrod Dyson • Napoleon • Oscar Peterson • Paul Rand • Phyllis Schlafly • Richard F. Heck • Rieah Holder • Rondell Sheridan • Siobhan Chamberlain • Stix Hooper • Tom Colicchio • Tom Johnston (musician)

Born in the same month (August 1883): Coco Chanel • Constance Georgina Adams • Ernest Everett Just • Jonathan M. Wainwright (general) • José Mendes Cabeçadas • Marion Lorne • Martha Hedman • Scott Nearing • Theo van Doesburg