In 1867, when this was painted, the World’s Fair in Paris introduced Japanese woodblock prints to a wide audience. They had first appeared in France in the 1850s, packed around imported porcelains, and now enjoyed a huge vogue. Monet himself became an avid collector. Many years later, after he moved to his last home at Giverny, he hung the yellow walls of his dining room with them. Their distinctive style was an important influence on many impressionist painters. Here that influence is evident in the unusual angle Monet has chosen—as if we peer down into the cradle—and in the abruptly cropped figure of the woman. Bold areas of pattern, in the bedclothes and canopy, for example, divide the composition and seem to flatten the space. Monet abandoned this painting before finishing it, however; in the lower right, especially, we see only his initial thoughts.

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