Austrian sculptor and architect. While training in an engraving and die-stamping workshop in Vienna (1921–4), he took evening classes in life-drawing at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna, before in 1926 joining Anton Hanak’s sculpture class where he met the metal sculptor Marian Fleck (d 1951), whom he married in 1929; in 1928 they both left the school after disagreements with the teacher. During his career as a die-stamper and engraver, Wotruba studied in 1927 with Professor Eugen Gustav Steinhof (b 1880) and carried out his first experiments in stone in 1928–9, including Male Torso (limestone; priv. col.). In 1930 he travelled to Düsseldorf and Essen, where he examined the works of Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Aristide Maillol and became a friend of Josef Hoffmann.

From Grove Dictionary of Art