Maksimilijan Vanka
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Maksimilijan Vanka (October 11, 1889 – February 2, 1963), also known as Maxo Vanka, was a Croatian-American artist.
Maxo Vanka was born in Croatia in 1889. It is believed that he may have been the illegitimate child of Habsburg nobility. He was sent to live with peasants, but at the age of eight was discovered by his maternal grandfather and sent to live in a castle. He studied art in Zagreb, Croatia and Brussels, Belgium. During World War I he served with the Belgian Red Cross because he was a pacifist and would not serve in the regular army.
He taught art in Zagreb, but went to America in the 1930s with his wife Margaret Stetten Vanka and his young daughter Peggy.
His most important works are his Millvale Murals in the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, the first Croatian Catholic parish in the United States, in Millvale, Pennsylvania. They depict Christ and Mary in images of war and offer social commentary on world events like fascism, war, and poverty.
He taught art at a community college in Bucks County, Pennsylvania at the end of his life.
He died swimming off the coast of Puerto Vallarta in 1963.
