Woman by a Large Window

Bay Area artist Richard Diebenkorn was influenced by Matisse's painting process and his exploration of interior/exterior space and later by the work of Mark Rothko and New York Abstract Expressionists Robert Motherwell and Willem de Kooning . Although Diebenkorn once considered relocating to New York, he remained in California, where he became an influential teacher and made paintings with a palette redolent of the colors of northern California.

The vibrant blue sky and expansive countryside of Woman by a Large Window are brought indoors, where a woman sits at a table with her back turned to a mirror that reflects the glowing abstract landscape beyond. The artist was careful to remove any details of her face or clothing that might express the sitter's personality. Like the luminous but generalized landscape beyond and behind her, she becomes an axis on the carefully composed grid that underlies Diebenkorn's construction of space. There is no action in this quiet painting-except for that which lays bare the painting process: the rich, almost tapestry-like quality of the woman's dress and the muted interior setting are alive with energetic brushstrokes, scratches, and paint splatters that are often visible in multiple layers of colors and tones.

While she was writing an article on Diebenkorn, Oberlin professor of art Ellen Johnson recalled in her memoirs that she corresponded with the artist, who generously gave her a pencil study for Oberlin's painting. Johnson also purchased for herself a large Diebenkorn painting, Berkeley #42 (1955), which she loved. Eventually- after offering it first to the AMAM, which felt its Diebenkorn holdings were adequate- Johnson sold it to the Cleveland Museum of Art. She used the proceeds for the down payment on her Frank Lloyd Wright- designed Oberlin home, which she described as "another work of art, a very useful as well as beautiful one."