Monet's style secret: his poor eyesight

Scientists believe they have discovered the secret behind the work of Claude Monet, one of the founders of Impressionist painting.

The artist is known to have suffered from cataracts but new research shows how much and for how long this could have had an effect and how it may have produced his distinctive style.

Researchers recreated Monet's Water-Lily Pond as he would have seen it. The pond was the subject of a series of canvases which Monet exhibited in 1900 at the age of 60.

Using computer software to mimic the effect of cataracts, the picture was blurred and the colours varied, creating dark, muddy shades of yellow-green. The experts said the results showed how badly Monet's vision may have been affected before he had surgery.

"He couldn't really judge what he was seeing," said Professor Michael Marmor, who led the study at Stanford University in California. "Monet's vision was becoming progressively more brownish in essence. It was getting harder to see and more blurred, but he was probably more bothered by the progressive loss of colour vision than the blur alone."

Paintings that show a use of very strong colours, and so were somewhat out of character, were used for the study in the Archives of Ophthalmology journal.

Professor Marmor said: "Monet may have used strong colours in these paintings because he was using them from memory or because he was overcompensating for his yellow vision by adding more blue."

Experts at the National Gallery agreed the research could help explain part of Monet's style. Chris Riopelle, curator of 19th century paintings, said: "I think there has always been a great mystery behind Monet and how much influence his eyesight problems had on his work. This is a great insight.

"However, it does not entirely answer the questions - after surgery, Monet's style did not alter radically. He also painted for 60 years before having problems, so developed a vast amount of skill. There will always be something of a mystery here."

Monet was diagnosed with cataracts in 1912 but did not have surgery until 1923. He died three years later. He destroyed many paintings created when his vision was at its worst, although he had done this before his eye problems.