diff --git a/gdk/gdkpixbuf-drawable.c b/gdk/gdkpixbuf-drawable.c
index e63c3a8713..ee88abe3b3 100644
--- a/gdk/gdkpixbuf-drawable.c
+++ b/gdk/gdkpixbuf-drawable.c
@@ -102,8 +102,17 @@ gdk_pixbuf_get_from_window (GdkWindow *src,
   /* We do not know what happened to this surface outside of GDK.
    * Especially for foreign windows, they will have been modified
    * by external applications.
+   *
    * So be on the safe side and:
+   * - mark the surface as dirty, in case the GdkWindow was
+   *   created from a foreign X11 surface
+   * - flush the Cairo state
+   *
+   * For reference, see:
+   * - https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=754952
+   * - https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/4456
    */
+  cairo_surface_mark_dirty (surface);
   cairo_surface_flush (surface);
 
   if (cairo_surface_get_content (surface) & CAIRO_CONTENT_ALPHA)