Rajka Merćep

Sculptor , potter and painter . She was born in Herzegovina , in Bileća. Her sculptures were exhibited in large galleries in Paris , Belgrade and Sarajevo . She was an unusually gifted painter and sculptor who spoke six languages.

She learned the basics of sculpture from the sculptor Iva Despić and the sculptor Ante Matković, and in 1927 she enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. After only two semesters she went to Paris, where she enrolled at the Académi e Colarossi, and later at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere with the famous sculptor Émila Antoine-Bourdelle. She was one of the few female sculptors who broke the prejudice that a woman cannot engage in fine arts.