He knew Rodin in Paris
Trained in Vienna, worked in Paris, then became his country's foremost sculptor.
Suradnik13 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY-SA 4.0
Ivan Meštrović's house and studio in Zagreb's Upper Town, where he lived and worked from the 1920s to the 1940s, and today a museum showing his work in the place it was made. Meštrović is Croatia's most important sculptor and among the foremost European sculptors of the twentieth century. He studied in Vienna and worked in Paris, where he came to know Rodin, exhibited at the major international shows, then emigrated to the United States after the Second World War and taught there until his death. What distinguishes visiting the atelier over an ordinary museum is that you see the place, not only the collection: the courtyards, rooms and studio as he arranged them, and sculptures in the garden where he set them. He converted the house himself from seventeenth-century buildings, so the architecture is part of the work. The pieces shown are bronze, wood, marble and plaster, and many are studies and preliminary models for large sculptures standing in other cities — which shows how a sculptor works, from small model to monumental piece. Practical points: entry is ticketed and the museum is small — allow under an hour. It usually closes one day a week. In the Upper Town, walking distance from St Mark's Church.
Trained in Vienna, worked in Paris, then became his country's foremost sculptor.
Studies for large works standing in other cities — the process is visible.
He converted the house himself from seventeenth-century buildings.
Mletačka, Upper Town, Zagreb
The Upper Town (Gornji Grad)Gornji Grad is original Zagreb: the medieval hill town of lanes and two hundred 1 min walk
Tkalciceva StreetTkalčićeva is Zagreb's street of cafes and restaurants: a narrow pedestrian run 3 min walk
The Museum of Broken RelationshipsThe Museum of Broken Relationships is Zagreb's most famous cultural export: two 3 min walk
Zagreb ObservatoryZagreb Observatory occupies the Priests' Tower, one of the medieval towers of th3 min walk
The Franciscan Monastery at KaptolA Franciscan monastery and church in Zagreb's Kaptol district, a short distance 5 min walkAcross Croatia and beyond: the huge Grgur Ninski in Split whose toe people rub for luck, the Marko Marulić statue also in Split, his family chapel at Otavice, and sculptures in Chicago and Washington. The atelier gives you the preliminary models for many of them, so visiting it before seeing the monuments changes how you look at them.
St Mark's Church with its tiled roof bearing the arms of Zagreb and Croatia, the Lotrščak Tower whose cannon has fired at noon every day since the nineteenth century, and the Museum of Broken Relationships, among Europe's strangest and most honest museums. The Upper Town is small and covered on foot in two hours.
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