Painting Without Seeing – Is It Possible?

Claude Monet, one of the greatest Impressionist painters, gradually saw his eyes close on the world he painted. The loss of his vision didn’t end his art—quite the opposite: it transformed his approach to painting, forcing him to reinvent his way of seeing.

Around 1912, Monet began to suffer from cataracts after his stay in Venice in 1908. His visual disorder manifested as a loss of sharpness, color distortion, and a general deterioration of perception. Light appeared as a yellow-orange haze, and the details of landscapes dissolved into a blurry mist. To continue painting, Monet adapted: he arranged his colors methodically and wore a hat to shield himself from the sun’s glare.

In 1923, Monet underwent surgery to remove the cataract from his right eye and wore Zeiss glasses to correct his vision, all while continuing to paint. However, the post-operative period was difficult: he experienced blue-tinted vision (cyanopsia), which influenced the works he produced at the time. Some paintings were considered distorted and unusable, and he chose to destroy them.

This visual transformation didn’t stop Monet but pushed him to redefine his technique. Although his Water Lilies were completed with a more accurate vision after the surgery, the final work retained a unique emotional energy—almost abstract. His altered perception of light and color allowed his art to evolve in astonishing and innovative ways.

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