Biography

Polly Duncan was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, one of four children of Fred and Mabel Duncan. She attended East High School in Denver, where her artistic ability was already apparent. She served as President of the Two Arts Club in a school where her classmates included future muralists Jenne Magafan, Ethel Magafan and Edward Chavez. Her high school yearbook, which is itself a remarkably fine production, notes that the school did have some talented artists. Duncan served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and is buried in a military cemetary in Denver. At the time of her death she was living in Colorado Springs, having presumably an association with the Broadmoor Art Academy.

Critical Analysis

Like her classmates the Magafan sisters and Edward Chavez, Polly Duncan was very much a product of the West. Her surviving watercolors depict Southwestern Latino topics, and her mural in Winnemucca is a fine depiction of the local scene.

Murals

• Winnemucca, Nevada - New Post Office: Cattle Round-Up

References

1. Classroom Hours (ancestry).
2. Duncan, Polly (National Gallery of Art, The Collection).
3. Polly H Duncan (ancestry).
4. Two Arts Officers (ancestry).