Background
Pregelj was born in Kranj in 1913 and was the son of the Slovene writer and playwright Ivan Pregelj.
Pregelj was born in Kranj in 1913 and was the son of the Slovene writer and playwright Ivan Pregelj.
He studied art at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts between 1932 and 1936.
He was known for his oil paintings, mostly landscapes, still life and portraits, but also for his illustrations, most notably the 1950 and 1951 edition of Anton Sovre"s translation of Homer"s Iliad and Odyssey. In 1969 he was also the first recipient of the Jakopič Award for painting.
He won the Levstik Award for his illustrations three times: in 1949 for his illustrations of France Bevk"s collection of stories Otroška leta (My Childhood Years), in 1957 for Jack London"s White Fang (Slovene title: Beli očnjak) and in 1959 for Hemingway"s The Old Manitoba and the Sea (Slovene title: Starec in morje). He won the Prešeren Award twice, in 1958 for his mosaic at the Worker"s Union building in Trbovlje and in 1964 for an exhibition of his paintings in the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana the previous year.
