Born in Yugoslavia, sculptor Ivan Meštrović achieved international acclaim in the 1920s for his development of an expressionistic figurative style inspired by Michelangelo, Rodin and Medieval carving. The artist was also renowned for his patriotism. His opposition to the Austrian-Hungarian regime ruling Yugoslavia during World War I forced him into temporary exile in Italy. When the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia at the beginning of World War II, the artist fled his native land and eventually immigrated to the United States.

Meštrović received his greatest recognition in the U.S. following the presentation of a comprehensive solo exhibition of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1947. The artist concluded his distinguished career producing art and teaching at Syracuse University from 1947 to 1955, and teaching at the University of Notre Dame from 1956 to 1962.

Being deeply religious, Meštrović devoted much of his work to the interpretation of biblical themes. The artist produced a full range of sculptural genre including single figures in the round, bas-relief, monumental outdoor statuary and complex architectural ornamentation. The drawings exist as studies for sculptural projects. Nonetheless, these large-scale graphic works convey the muscular energy and rhetorical grandeur of gesture that made Meštrović’s dramatic sculpture so memorable.