Edward Dufner (1871–1957)

In By the Window, a lady sits in a rocking chair and looks outside. A nearby table holds a vase of flowers and a bookshelf. Dufner delighted in painting the translucent curtains that partially veil the window, as well as the pale yellow-green reflection of the outside light on the wall in the room. By the Window is executed in a deft, elegant shorthand that lends vitality to this quiet scene.

This painting belongs to a series of images of women by a window that Dufner painted in the 1910s. Margaret by the Window, c. 1914-15, presents a more conservative and highly finished scene, with a woman in a different pose and costume who occupies the same interior. Dufner also exhibited a painting called Gladys by the Window at the National Academy of Design in 1913.