Art and vision

The artist’s vision

Art reflects how we see the world, and when artists’ sight deteriorates, their art often changes too. One of the distinguishing features of Impressionist art is that it is often difficult to appreciate fully close up, but can be seen to full effect from a distance, so it is hardly surprising to learn that many of the Impressionist painters were in fact short-sighted.

For a description of the image place your cursor over it (certain browsers only), or click here for an audio transcript of the painting by Cézanne - Dans le parc de Chateau Noir.

Cézanne and Renoir

Cézanne, for example, was myopic (short-sighted), but refused to wear glasses. Later in life he was diagnosed with diabetes, which is thought to have led to concurrent retinopathy. Renoir, too, was short-sighted and preferred to paint what he saw, which was blurred.

Degas

Degas was another Impressionist whose eyesight had an effect on his work. At 36, he was relatively young when some form of retinopathy started to rob him of his sight. Within a few years, he had lost much of his central vision and he later had difficulties identifying colours. He took a different route round his visual problems from Monet. Rather than changing the colours in his palette, Degas began increasingly to work with sculpture and pastels, which don’t require such intense visual acuity.

Rembrandt

It is thought that Rembrandt also had visual problems, probably simply as a result of old age. His paintings seem to reflect a decline in visual acuity and sensitivity to colour contrast as they become progressively less detailed and the colours, less bold.

For a description of the image place your cursor over it (certain browsers only), or click here for an audio transcript of the painting by Monet - The Japanese Footbridge.

Monet Monet, often called the father of Impressionism, had nuclear cataracts and this condition had a profound effect on his work. Nuclear cataracts absorb light, making colours appear "washed out", and give things a more yellowy hue. Soon after the onset of this condition, the colours in Monet’s paintings started to shift from whites, greens and blues to "muddier" yellows and purples. Later on, as the condition progressed, his paintings became dominated by a palette of reds and yellows, rather than blue and greens. He said he saw reds as dull pinks and other, paler objects as yellowish.

For a description of the image place your cursor over it (certain browsers only), or click here for an audio transcript of the painting by Cassatt - Woman with baby.

Cassatt

Mary Cassatt is considered the most famous female Impressionist painter. She was also great friends with Degas and like him she was to suffer deterioration of her eyesight. Her sight failed gradually due to cataracts that could not be operated on. Because of this, the colours in her pastels became less subtle and harsher, although Cassatt considered them her best paintings. Mary Cassatt stopped producing pictures after 1913 and was eventually to become totally blind.

Visual artists, you might think, need their vision to work. Yet a surprising number manage to continue working with very little sight, or even none at all.

Catalina Montesinos de Brooker - Artist and guide dog owner

Guide dog owner Catalina Montesinos de Brooker was a painter before she started losing her sight to diabetic retinopathy. She continued for a while until she found it too difficult and upsetting to carry on. She was eventually registered blind in 1978 and it wasn’t until 1985 that she started working as an artist again. This revival in her career happened because a friend gave her some clay, which Catalina found was the perfect medium for her now that she had so little remaining sight.

"It was miraculous!" she says, "It’s such an immediate medium - you don’t have to mix any paints or prepare your canvas - and I just took to it straight away."

For a description of the image place your cursor over it (certain browsers only).

Catalina may have lost her sight, but her artistic instincts have never failed her and she continues to work - and exhibit - as a visual artist.

Yet she is not alone. Many artists find ways to work round sight loss which might seem at first to have the capacity to deprive them of their ability to produce art. There are scores of vision-impaired painters, sculptors and even photographers who continue to make valuable contributions to the world of art even though what they see of their own work may often be very limited.