Collections: American Art: Martinique Woman

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Martinique Woman

The heroic scale of this head of a woman from Martinique, along with the dramatic quallity of the black marble from which it is carved, lends this work a particular drama and power. The sculptor Malvina Hoffman's interest in representing individuals from widely divergent cultures led in 1929 to two years of global travel in preparation for her best-known project: more than a hundred realistic bronze sculptures of "The Living Races of Man" commissioned for a "scientific" display on world cultures at the Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

• Artist: Malvina Hoffman, American, 1887-1966
• Medium: Blackstone
• Dates: ca. 1928
• Dimensions: 21 1/2 x 13 9/16 x 12 1/2 in. (54.6 x 34.4 x 31.8 cm)
• Signature: Incised along bottom edge at back: "MALVINA HOFFMAN / © 1928"
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, Making Art: Centennial Era, 5th Floor
• Accession Number: 28.384
• Credit Line: Dick S. Ramsay Fund
• Image: 3/4 front, 28.384_threequarterfront_acetate_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Malvina Hoffman (American, 1887-1966). Martinique Woman, ca. 1928. Blackstone, 21 1/2 x 13 9/16 x 12 1/2 in. (54.6 x 34.4 x 31.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 28.384 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 28.384_threequarterfront_acetate_bw.jpg)
• Catalogue Description: Over-life-sized head of woman with African features, head turned to right in 3/4 profile, hair gathered into small buns all over head, surface of skin is smoothly polished while hair is roughly textured. Condition: Good, few small scratches and nicks overall.