The Rombold family presented a gift to the Wichita Art Museum of a portrait of Polly Rombold (1908–1995) who was herself an artist in enameling and metalwork, a teacher, and an art patron. One of Polly Rombold’s close connections to the Wichita Art Museum was her service as one of two trustees of the Edmund and Faye Davison Collection. Bruce Moore is perhaps best remembered in Wichita for his designs of architectural ornamentation in ceramic tile for historic North High School.

Born in Bern, Kansas, and raised in Pratt, Bruce Moore and his family moved to Wichita in 1917. He received his first artistic training and the support, which launched his career as a sculptor from the Wichita Art Association. Moore studied with major American sculptor Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, traveled to Rome on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and returned to the U.S. to earn national acclaim for his graceful Beaux Arts bronze compositions of animal and allegorical human figures.

The Polly Rombold terracotta exemplifies Moore’s characteristic balance of naturalism and idealization. It also illustrates the artist’s preference for the sculptural technique of modeling and bronze casting over that of carving.