Resonant scattering of monochromatic light by a quantum well with the frequency of its excitonic resonance varying along a certain direction in the plane of the well is studied experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that the simplest model of a thin inhomogeneous layer that yields an exact solution of the direct and inverse scattering problems allows one to successfully describe the experimental observation of resonant scattering by a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well with the frequency of the exciton resonance linearly varying in the plane of the well. © 2009 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.