Science and Art
Vision is the most important of our senses. But what happens when our eyes cloud over, when the world loses its colours and shapes gradually blur? Age and eye diseases can affect the way we see the world. While this is a problem for anyone affected, it is particularly poignant for painters who represent what they see in their paintings. The most famous artist whose eye sight failed was Claude Monet. Late in life he developed cataracts that, over two decades, progressively destroyed his ability to see. The effects of the clouding lenses on his vision are clearly mirrored in his paintings. The brushstrokes become coarser and the pictures lose their details. Ultimately, the motifs often become impossible to recognise.
This montage of two of Monet’s paintings illustrates the changes in the artist’s work towards the end of his life. It shows the Japanese bridge over the water lily pond in his garden. The top-left is taken from a painting created in 1899, a decade before Monet developed the first signs of failing sight. The bottom-right corner shows the same motif 25 years later at a time when cataracts had robbed Monet of most of his vision. The earlier picture is rich in detail and shows the bridge surrounded by the vivid green of the plants. The late picture by contrast is characterised by coarse brushstrokes in red and yellow, and the motifs, such as the water lilies and the other plants, are now barely recognisable. Montage by Johannes-Maria Schlorke.
Frustrated and angered by his increasing inability to paint, Monet even destroyed a number of his late paintings. Yet despite his ordeal, Monet was fortunate in that he lived at a time when medical science had just advanced to a degree that allowed it to restore the sight of cataract patients, including that of the great painter. Others were not as lucky. Cataracts ended the careers of many of Monet’s colleagues, including the Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt and the caricaturist Honoré Daumier.
Through his research on the development and function of the eye, Ralf Dahm became interested in questions such as: How does the vision of people with eye disease differ from a person with normal sight? How did affected artists react to their blunted vision? And is their changed perception reflected in their works of art? Since 1999, he has published numerous interdisciplinary and popular scientific articles on this topic. Read more about this topic by clicking here.