Since 1903, members of Arts and Letters have delivered commemorative tributes to fellow members who have passed away. These remarks celebrate and reflect on the lives and work of the members being honored and acknowledge their contribution to the arts. A selection of tributes is now available in the digital archive below. As we prepared this archive, we were reminded that these tributes reflect their times, and, in some instances, include terminology and social and moral judgments we do not endorse.
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Malvina Hoffman, who died on July 10th, was born in New York, the daughter of Richard Hoffman, a distinguished concert pianist who was an accompanist for Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale." From the beginning Miss Hoffman lived in an environment of the arts. Early she became a pupil of John W. Alexander, painter, a member of both the Institute and the Academy. A trip to Paris, however, resulted in a change of her interest to sculpture; she studied with Rodin and later, upon her return to the United States, with Gutzon Borglum and Herbert Adams.
Miss Hoffman's first work of importance was a bas-relief frieze of Pavlova and Mordkin; this work brought her fame. For five years she traveled widely, particularly in the Near and Far East, on behalf of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to prepare herself for the most monumental work of her career, "The Races of Mankind," which consists of one hundred four bronze figures, in both life and heroic size; they occupy the Hall of Man in the Museum. One of these, the "Mongolian Archer," won the Gold Medal of Honor of the Allied Artists of America in 1962.
Throughout a long and active life Miss Hoffman produced a large number of important works including "The Sacrifice" in Harvard University's War Memorial Chapel; two bas-reliefs on the walls of the World War II Memorial Chapel at Epinal in France of which her friend, William Adams Delano, was the architect, and the "Bacchanale Russe" in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. She made portrait busts of many distinguished Americans including Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Wendell Willkie, Ivan Mestrovic, Dr. William Ernest Hocking, Dr. Harvey W. Cushing, and Ignace Paderewski.
Miss Hoffman was the author of three well-known books: Heads and Tales, 1936; Sculpture Inside and Out, 1939; and Yesterday Is Tomorrow, 1965.
Miss Hoffman was a member of the Institute for almost thirty years, of the National Academy of Design for thirty-five years, and of the National Sculpture Society for more than forty years. She blazed a bright trail in the area of the arts and left behind distinguished works that will enrich the life of this and succeeding generations.
Nobly you lived, leaving a heritage
Now rarely matched; and beauty, e'er to be
The guiding spirit of your life "on-stage,"
Followed your talents in serenity.
How versatile! The art you have bequeathed
Will live forever. With consummate skill
You fashioned inert clay, into it breathed
Your soul and your indomitable will.
Look on the bronzes, "Races of Mankind,"
Upon the portraits of the men of fame
Who lived in this our day; therein we find
Your genius, full deserving our acclaim.
Farewell, dear friend; a long distinguished life
Was yours. Now we must carry on the strife.
GILMORE D. CLARKE