diff --git a/window.c b/window.c
index b7b3618b4..3c5edbda3 100644
--- a/window.c
+++ b/window.c
@@ -240,4 +240,15 @@ simplewindow_move(SimpleWindow *sw, int x, int y)
     return XMoveWindow(globalconf.display, sw->window, x, y);
 }
 
+int
+simplewindow_refresh_drawable(SimpleWindow *sw, int phys_screen)
+{
+    return XCopyArea(globalconf.display, sw->drawable,
+                     sw->window,
+                     DefaultGC(globalconf.display, phys_screen), 0, 0,
+                     sw->geometry.width,
+                     sw->geometry.height,
+                     0, 0);
+}
+
 // vim: filetype=c:expandtab:shiftwidth=4:tabstop=8:softtabstop=4:encoding=utf-8:textwidth=80
diff --git a/window.h b/window.h
index 373cd712d..2d6f3b378 100644
--- a/window.h
+++ b/window.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ int window_settrans(Window, double);
 SimpleWindow * simplewindow_new(int, int, int, unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned int, Bool);
 void simplewindow_delete(SimpleWindow *);
 int simplewindow_move(SimpleWindow *, int, int);
+int simplewindow_refresh_drawable(SimpleWindow *, int);
 
 #endif
 // vim: filetype=c:expandtab:shiftwidth=4:tabstop=8:softtabstop=4:encoding=utf-8:textwidth=80