Malvina Hoffman (1887 – 1966) American sculptor and author, well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people.

She also worked in plaster and marble. Stanley Field, director of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, commissioned Hoffman to create sculptures of people representing members of the diverse groups of humans in cultures around the world that became a permanent exhibition at the museum entitled "Hall of the Races of Mankind", which was popular for both for its artistic and cultural values. It was featured at the Century of Progress International Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1933 that celebrated the centennial of the city. The museum also published a Map of Mankind, featuring her sculptures in a border surrounding a map of the world that was distributed widely with an informative, large-format booklet that made Hoffman's sculptures very well known.

Portrait busts of significant individuals of that time and depictions of people in their everyday lives were frequent works executed by Hoffman. Dancers were the subjects of the works that brought her earliest recognition and she continued to sculpt dancers throughout her career, some individuals repeatedly, such as Anna Pavlova. She was highly skilled in foundry techniques as well, often casting her own works and she published a definite work on historical and technical aspects of sculpture, Sculpture Inside and Out.

Source: Wikipedia