Ophthalmology & Art

Ophthalmology and Art:
(Stanford ophthalmologist Michael f. Marmor presents the following research regarding the evolution of Monet’s paintings as impacted by the progression of his cataracts)

Monet, one of the most influential impressionists of the early 20th century, had cataracts that worsened steadily from 1912 to 1922. Slowly progressive age-related cataracts manifest as a yellowing and darkening lens, greatly impacting color perception and visual acuity.

We find striking changes in the style of Monet’s paintings during the period of progressive visual failure. These late paintings show predominant red-orange or green-blue tones that are quite different from the subtle color shading that characterizes Monet’s earlier Impressionistic work. There is nothing in Monet’s correspondence to suggest that he had any intention of mimicking the abstractions and distortions explored by other painters in the early 20th century. It is very difficult to know a century later whether these works appear to us as Monet wanted them to appear. After having his cataracts removed, he destroyed many of his late canvases. Many remain only because they were salvaged by family and friends.

1914-1915: Monet’s visual difficulties were becoming more serious. He wrote that “colors no longer had the same intensity for me . . . reds had begun to look muddy . . . my painting was getting more and more darkened.” He felt that he could no longer distinguish or choose colors well and was “on the one hand trusting solely to the labels on the tubes of paint and, on the other, to force of habit.”

1919-1922: Monet was afraid that he might have to stop painting. He would only paint during certain hours when the lighting was optimal. He was well aware that colors were lost in the yellow blur of his vision.

1923: Monet finally acquiesced to cataract surgery. Though he regained acceptable reading vision, he was acutely aware of changes in color perception in the eye that underwent surgery. He complained vigorously for more than a year that the world appeared either too yellow or too blue. He finally regained confidence in his view of the world in 1924 and worked vigorously to refine the great Water Lily canvases now hanging in Paris, France.

(The following information is from Guy Gugliotta’s article “Simulations of Ailing Artists’ Eyes Yield New Insights on Style,” in the New York Times, 2004)

France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries embraced an astonishing number of important artists who battled serious physical shortcomings — sometimes for decades.

Edgar Degas, known for his paintings of nudes and ballet dancers, suffered retinal disease, probably macular degeneration, for nearly half his life. Degas first noticed eye problems as a national guardsman in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71, when he could not aim his rifle because of a blind spot in his right eye. By 1890, his left eye also began to deteriorate. Light dazzled him. He tried to use peripheral vision to compensate for his loss of central vision.
       Retinal disease, unlike cataracts, does not cause major difficulties with color perception. But Degas had blurred vision, affecting his ability to perceive form and line. Dr. Michael Marmor used computer simulations to gauge the problem. The simulations showed that Degas’s draftsmanship became less detailed and the shadowing coarsened as his sight deteriorated. Even so, his work would have looked smoother to him than it actually was.

Mary Cassatt, like Monet, had cataracts. Cataract surgery was possible in the early 1900s, but it did not always work. “I look forward with horror to utter darkness,” Cassatt wrote in 1919, fearing that an operation on her left eye would be “as great a failure as the last one.”

Camille Pissarro had a malfunctioning tear duct, and in his last 15 years, suffered chronic infection of the tear sac in his right eye. Thus, he had difficulty painting outdoors, particularly in winter.        
       Still, “There is a certain element of ‘I’m not going to stop what I want to do,’” said a great-grandson of the artist, Joachim Pissarro, an art historian at Hunter College. “You don’t want to over-analyze the impact.” Indeed, Pissarro’s late cityscapes of Rouen and Paris, regarded as masterpieces, were painted from indoors behind a window to protect his eyes.

For artists with eye problems, it is perhaps surprising that infirmities did not change their styles more radically. A key, some experts said, might be that although artists’ perceptions might be influenced by physical limitations, they are also informed by what the artists know and what they want to do.

“Most of us are into quick snapshots,” said John Elderfield, chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. “But the ability to translate visual memory into a different medium is another thing altogether. Monet had been painting for 50 years when he had cataracts. Of course he painted from memory. He painted from memory all his life.”

*Edited for length
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