Iva Despić Simonović

Place: Hrastovica Near Petrinja

Born: 1891

Death: 1961

Biography:

Ivana 'Iva' Despić Simonović was a Yugoslav sculptor, born on August 15, 1891, in Hrastovica near Petrinja, Croatia. She was educated in Zagreb, Paris, and Munich, and became the first trained female sculptor in Bosnia. She lived and worked in Sarajevo, but also served as the court sculptor in Belgrade. Despić Simonović was the only sculptor in the interwar period in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, but faded into obscurity after the World War II. She died on July 12, 1961.