Karl Hofer is considered an Expressionist although in his style and choice of subject matter he is regarded as more romantic and less explosive than his contemporaries. In the years leading up to the Second World War it became increasingly difficult for him to work and he was eventually dismissed from the Berliner Hochschule in 1933. Blumenwerfende Mädchen is amongst his most celebrated compositions and one which he reworked several times during his career.
Women before an open window cast daisies, tulips and anemones to passers-by. The space emphasizes their isolation and confinement. Their faces and figures are typical of Hofer's women; their enigmatic glances are directed at once far away and deep within. Their forms are tight, compact, planar but rounded. These women are solid, material, sculptured forms which occupy space whereas a few years earlier..the figures were articulated by angular transparent planes." (I.K. Rigby, Karl Hofer, London 1976, p. 143-4)

This work came directly from the Galerie Nierendorf to the Art Institute of Chicago as a purchase for the Winterbotham Collection. In 1921 Joseph Winterbotham had established a fund to buy contemporary paintings by foreign artists to establish a collection which would be exhibited in the Institute. In 1947, after thirty-five paintings were acquired, the collection was officially presented to the Institute.