This week on the Post: French painters and musicians who, in some indefinable way, have influenced our books. Berthe Morisot (1841-95) showed The Cradle, which hangs at the Musée d'Orsay, at the Impressionist exhibition of 1874 that included work by Degas, Pissarro, Renoir, Monet and Sisley; the painting failed to sell, and stayed in the artist's family until bought by the Louvre in 1930. One could draw all kinds of conclusions about domesticity in art; the dominance of male Impressionist painters; the subjects that were considered suitable for painters and writers – and those that were not; the fact that Morisot was not commercially successful in her lifetime. But let's just rejoice that 120 years after her death The Cradle draws the crowds.