[Leica] Eyes___

[Tina Manley]

Very interesting.  Thanks, Frank!

I'll probably have to recalibrate my computer.  I'm sure the colors will
change to me.

Tina

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 1:13 AM, Frank Filippone <red735i at verizon.net>
wrote:

> Claude Monet
>
> We know from medical records and correspondence that he had cataracts that
> worsened steadily over the decade from 1912 to 1922.   Slowly progressive
> age-related cataracts (nuclear sclerosis) manifest as yellowing and
> darkening of the lens that are directly visible to an examining
> ophthalmologist and have a major effect on color perception as well as
> visual acuity. The visual simulations of this study are based on estimation
> of the lens discoloration that is typically associated with differing
> levels
> of visual acuity loss from chronic nuclear sclerotic cataracts.
>
> Monet was aware of his failing vision in 1912 and consulted several
> different ophthalmologists, who diagnosed cataracts.  Surgery was
> recommended for the worse eye, but Monet was very resistant even though the
> operation was well established and relatively safe at this time.
> Interestingly, he was worried that his color perception would be altered by
> the surgery (although one might argue that it would become more normal).
> Since Monet only described slightly reduced vision and was having no major
> difficulties with his art or his personal life, his visual acuity in 1912
> was probably no worse than 20/50.
>
> By 1914 to 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.”9
> 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.”9 He could still read and write with effort,
> so I would estimate that his visual acuity in 1918 was near 20/100.
> However,
> the yellowing of his lens caused greater difficulty with his art than the
> blur. Figure 3A and B compare a photograph of Monet's garden and a painting
> of the scene from 1899 (when his vision was unimpaired). Figure 3C shows
> the
> garden as it would have appeared to Monet around 1915. Most colors are
> still
> distinguishable, but there is an overriding yellowish cast and a loss of
> subtle color discriminations. Figure 4A and B show a water lily painting
> from 1915 to 1917 as it appears to us and as it would have looked to Monet
> at that time.
>
> I must digress at this point to note that artists can respond in several
> different ways to a yellow filter (cataract) in front of their world, and
> one cannot predict necessarily how it will influence their art. Because
> cataracts are chronic, a patient may not be aware that the world looks
> yellowish (as there are no normal colors with which to compare). However,
> whether an artist recognizes the yellow bias or not, there will be a choice
> between painting a yellowish world or adding extra blue as compensation
> (eg,
> to make the sky appear “properly” blue). Furthermore, the artist may mix
> these techniques with Monet's approach of painting by experience and choose
> colors from habit rather than observation. The idea that the artist will
> self-correct, ie, choose colors by matching the canvas to the scene, does
> not hold because certain colors that are different on the palette will look
> the same through the cataract (eg, yellow and white).
>
> Between 1919 and 1922, Monet was fearful that he might have to stop
> painting. He would only paint during certain hours when the lighting was
> optimal, and he was well aware that colors were lost in the yellow blur of
> his vision that made his garden appear severely monotone (Figure 3D). His
> visual acuity was recorded in 1922 to be 20/200 in the better eye.
>
> W find striking changes in the style of Monet's paintings during the period
> of progressive visual failure. Compare paintings of the lily pond done in
> 1899 (Figure 3B), in 1915 to 1917, and around 1922. These late paintings
> are
> almost abstract in the applications of paint and show a predominant
> red-orange or green-blue tone that is quite different from the subtle color
> shading that characterizes Monet's earlier Impressionistic work. As with
> Degas, 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.
>
> Monet's mature style was not dependent on the outlining of figures or the
> subtle shading of figures and clothing, and his applications of paint were
> larger than those of Degas. When we look through Monet's eyes at the late
> paintings, we see that although he would have recognized the relative
> coarseness of his brushstrokes, he could not recognize the true colors of
> his paintings. In 1914 to 1917, his color perceptions were dulled (Figure
> 4A
> and B), but toward 1922, images that are strikingly orange or strikingly
> blue were to him almost indistinguishable as a murky yellow-green. Even if
> he painted these works according to habit, he could not judge the effect
> that he was having on the viewer, nor could he refine the works without
> risking errors in judgment.
>
> It is very difficult for us a century later to know whether these works
> appear to us as Monet wanted them to appear. Monet finally acquiesced to
> cataract surgery, which was performed in 1923. Afterward, he destroyed many
> of his late canvases. Many of those that remain do so only because they
> were
> salvaged by family and friends. Virtually all of his paintings in this late
> style are undated, but there is a Japanese Bridge dated 1919 and a House
> and
> Garden dated 1922, which leads me to believe that these late-style works
> were done during his period of severely impaired vision. Of course, we do
> not know the degree to which Monet accepted or liked these salvaged works,
> and we also do not know whether some of these canvases might have been
> reworked after his cataract surgery.
>
> Monet did very well with cataract surgery and regained acceptable reading
> vision. He was acutely aware of changes in color perception in the eye that
> underwent surgery, and 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 the Musée de l’Orangerie,
> Paris, France. It must be noted that the style of these “grand decorations”
> clearly harkens back to that of his earlier paintings.  Thus, it seems
> unlikely that he had adopted or espoused his broader style from 1919 to
> 1922
> entirely by free choice or that he was entirely pleased with it.
>
> Frank Filippone
>
> Red735i at verizon.net
>
>
>
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>



-- 
Tina Manley
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