Malvina Hoffman

Breton Wrestlers Plaster Figurative Modern Male Sculpture Female Artist LGBT WPA

1929

Breton Wrestlers Plaster Figurative Modern Male Sculpture Female Artist LGBT WPA Malvina Hoffman (American, 1885 - 1966) "Breton Wrestlers" 20 inches high Plaster Signed and titled BRETON WRESTLERS, PARIS, 1929 Stamped "MPI on the back of the base, likely a museum reproduction of the bronze. The Sculpture is recorded in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database under the Control Number: IAS 9E260042. Artist's quote about the subject: "The wrestlers were done from actual Breton athletes, at St. Guenole – the tip end of Finistere in Brittany, France. After I saw them on the beach there I persuaded them to come to Paris where I could finish the details of the three positions and have them authenticated. This form of wrestling, I am told, is no longer permitted, as there were too many serious accidents, and sometimes broken necks." -M. Hoffman April 27, 1962 Born in New York City, Malvina Hoffman was a portrait sculptor of pieces that expressed the fluid movement of dancers and lofty human values. She became especially noted for her hall-of-fame portraits including Paderewski, Pavlova, Wendell Wilkie and Katharine Cornell. Many of her pieces she carved in stone, and some of them were enormous in scale including war monuments. Her masterpiece is considered to be The Races of Man, done in 1933, commissioned by the Marshall Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. It had one-hundred five separate pieces, cast in bronze, depicting people from diverse cultures. She grew up in an art-oriented environment in Manhattan where her father was a pianist and music filled the house. She attended the Brearley School and took private art classes, first studying painting with John White Alexander. Changing to sculpture, she did her first work in 1909, a portrait bust of her father who died that year leaving the family in financial straits. However, his portrait was accepted for the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition and launched her career. She studied with Herbert Adams...

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