Ivan Mestrovic was born in Vrpolje kraj Broda, Slavonia, Croatia, on 15 August 1883. After a year working in a stonemason’s workshop, he moved to Vienna and from 1901 to 1905 studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste. Among his teachers were Otto Wagner (1841-1918) and Edmund von Hellmer (1850-1935). In 1905 he exhibited with the Secession Group in Vienna From 1908 to 1911 Mestrovic lived Paris where he began to establish his reputation as a sculptor. After a brief period in Belgrade, he moved to Rome and participated in the Esposizione internazionale d'arte held in Rome in 1911, at which he was awarded the grand prix, and in the Esposizione internazionale dell'industria e del lavoro in Turin also held that year. With the outbreak of the World War One in 1914 he travelled in various parts of Europe, and in 1915 exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the first Croation to do so.