Edward Dufner
Edward Dufner (1871–1957)
The Artist’s Wife, c. 1915
Oil on paper mounted on board, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Signed lower right: Edw Dufner
The Artist’s Wife is less a portrait of Dufner’s wife than a study of modeling, color, and light that uses a pleasing subject. Standing on the threshold between a screened porch and a yard, she is bathed in an unusual half-light. Sun strikes the edge of the red screen door behind her, as well as patches of grass in the distance, while the rest of the scene is in the shade. The painting is rendered in Dufner’s fluid figural style.