Hey, Painting People!
Claude Monet was a French painter who focused heavily on capturing reality through light and natural forms. The main objective of his work was to analyze light and color and its ever-changing nature. A pioneer in the Impressionist movement, Monet experimented plenty with his work. He was known to paint the same subjects repeatedly to see how appearances changed at different times and in different light.
Impressed?
Without meaning to, Monet gave Impressionism its name. The artistic movement was named after one of his paintings: “Impression, Sunrise”, which was exhibited in 1874. It was the critic Louis Leroy who accused Monet’s painting of being a sketch or “impression,” of a piece, but not a finished painting itself. Despite it being meant as an insult, the name stuck.
Creativity and Cataracts
In 1905, 65-year-old Monet began to notice his vision deteriorating. Colors had grown dimmer and in less than ten years, he was diagnosed with nuclear cataracts in both of his eyes. His paintings started featuring more yellow and purple tones. Because Monet often repainted the same subjects, his body of work was studied to better understand eye disease and how it affects our vision.
Ultraviolet Painting
Though Monet didn’t want surgery for his cataracts, he eventually agreed to the operation on his right eye. He didn’t have any surgery done on his left eye, however, even though it still had cataracts and violets and blues had vanished from his vision. When he had the operation, the lens of his right eye was removed, allowing more light into his eye. It’s believed that Monet was seeing ultraviolet wavelengths that would otherwise be filtered out by the lens. Blues became very prominent his work from then on.
Do you like to paint? Who knows where your ventures on the canvas will end up! Maybe one day you’ll be considered to be a revolutionary part of the art movement. Keep painting. Thanks for reading, Everyone. And, as always, Happy Camping! Thanks for reading, Everybody!
- John