The son of a local stonecarver and farmer, Ivan Mestrovic was raised in Otavice, Dalmatian Croatia. He taught himself to read and write at an early age and experimented with carving wood while he tended sheep. His aptitude encouraged the local citizens to contribute money for his formal education in Split where he was apprenticed in the workshop of a professional stonecutter. He soon attracted the attention of a Viennese industrialist who financed his subsequent move to Vienna in 1900. After some difficulties, he was accepted into the Vienna Art Academy where he studied for four years.
Mestrovic's work of this period, mostly in an impressionist style and certainly not in keeping with then current academic aesthetics, met with almost immediate success. He exhibited with the Vienna Secession Group beginning in 1903 and, on moving to Paris in 1907, met Rodin with whom he shared a mutual admiration. The influence of the great Frenchman plus Mestrovic's own feelings of nationalism for his native land are evident in his work of this decade, most notably in The Well of Life which he created in 1905 for the city of Zagreb.
In 1909 Mestrovic returned to Split but was forced to flee the country at the outbreak of World War I. He led the life of a political exile for the next five years in various European cities, working hard for the unification of the Southern Slavs. His sculptural work increasingly took on an intense spirituality, epitomized by a series of wooden reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Christ. These were executed over many years, from 1917 to 1953, for a small chapel in Split. Religious sculpture was to dominate the remainder of Mestrovic's career.
After the war, the sculptor settled in Zagreb, opened a studio and continued to work on sculptural commissions, spending summers at his home (now the Mestrovic Gallery) in Split. The outbreak of World War II again caused strife for the politically-minded artist and his refusal to participate in German or Italian cultural programs led to his arrest and imprisonment. His ultimate release, brought about by the efforts of the Vatican, was followed by a stay in Venice and Switzerland.
After the war, at the urging of Malvina Hoffman, Mestrovic was offered a position at Syracuse University which he accepted in 1947. By that time, he was well known in the United States, having had his first solo exhibition in this country as early as 1924, an event which had brought him to America for a brief visit. He became an American citizen in 1954 and the following year was offered and accepted the position of Distinguished Professor at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. He taught and worked there until the end of his life.
The esteem in which Mestrovic was held by the members of the National Academy is indicated by the fact that he was declared a full National Academician posthumously in 1962.
