Malvina Cornell Hoffman (June 15, 1885 - July 10, 1966) was an American author and sculptor, renowned for her life-size bronze sculptures of people. Born in New York City, Hoffman was homeschooled until the age of ten and then attended elite private schools in Manhattan. While still in school, she attended night art classes at the Woman's School for Applied Design and the Art Students League of New York. She began seriously studying painting in 1906 and became an assistant to sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor in 1907. Following her father's death in 1910, Hoffman and her mother moved to Paris (after visiting London and Italy) where Hoffman continued her art education. Her goal was to study under the famed sculptor Auguste Rodin, and after five unsuccessful attempts, was accepted as one of his students. Mother and daughter lived in Paris until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During World War I, Hoffman joined the Red Cross and became an outspoken advocate for the refugee crisis in Serbia. She traveled to Serbia at least once during the war. During the interwar years, Hoffman's career continued to grow. In 1929, she received a commission from Stanley Field, the head of the Field Museum of Natural History, to create anthropologically accurate sculptures of peoples throughout the world. Over the course of five years, she traveled the world in search of models, and produced 104 sculptures: twenty-seven life-size, twenty-seven busts, and fifty heads. This impressive (although misguided) body of work was displayed in the Hall of Man at the Field Museum from 1936 until 1966, when it was taken off display. During World War II, Hoffman again served in the Red Cross and raised money for the Red Cross and national defense. She continued her support of Serbia (then part of Yugoslavia) during World War II as well. She continued making work for the rest of her life and her pieces are part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Harvard Art Museum, and numerous others. She married Samual Bonarius Grimson on June 4, 1924. They divorced in 1936 amid speculation the divorce was caused by Hoffman's affair with the ballerina Anna Pavlova. Hoffman never remarried. She died of a heart attack in her Manhattan studio on July 10, 1966.