One of the most famous Korčulan sculptors, Frano Kršinić, has created a sculpture which can be found in the centre of Korčula.
If you decide to enter Korčula Old Town not through the “main gate”, Revelin Tower, but rather through the other, smaller Sea Gate (found on the Western side of the Old Town, and very close to Korčula De La Ville hotel and Tourist Information Centre), on your right you might see a sculpture. It’s a sculpture in bronze, of a girl holding in her hands a single rose. It’s located in a small park, surrounded by roses and other flowers, just below the stairs that lead up to the riches of the Old Town.
And there’s no indication of what exactly the sculpture is, who made it, why it’s there. I have been seeing it for a decade, it has been there for several, and still, it’s not easy to find any information about it.
Frano Kršinić is one of the biggest sculpting names in Croatian history, alongside Ivan Meštrović and Antun Augustinčić, born in Lumbarda on the island of Korčula in 1897, most famous for his sculpture of Nikola Tesla, which can still be found on the Niagara Falls. His statues can be found in many large cities of the former state, including Zagreb, Split, Gospić, Belgrade etc, and his works are kept in private collections and museums in London, Geneva, Moscow, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, New York, Washington, Addis Ababa, and elsewhere.
His other significant works include many sculptures in marble and bronze, often portraying young women. The sculpture you can see in Korčula also belongs to that series, it’s a young woman (with a girl’s body) delicately holding a rose, which was created first in 1940, and then worked on again, to be presented for the second time in 1953.
PS: If you look very carefully when in Zagreb, you might see a sculpture that reminds you of the Korčulan Young Woman Tending a Rose. That’s because in Zagreb, on the Petar Krešimir IV Square, the equal cast of the sculpture has been permanently displayed.
