Malvina Cornell Hoffman (1885-1966) was an American author and sculptor renowned for her sculptures of the people of the world. After attending art classes at the Woman’s School for Applied Design and the Art Students League of New York, she became an assistant to sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor in 1907.
In 1910, Hoffman moved to Paris, where she continued her artistic education, including an apprenticeship under the French master, Auguste Rodin (only after several failed attempts). In 1929, she received a commission from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to create a series of anthropologically accurate sculptures of the world’s peoples. Over the next five years, Hoffmann traveled the world to meet and study her models. She subsequently produced 104 bronze sculptures for the Field Museum.