Painter JMW Turner - cateracts and color blindness?
from the
Guardian
bq. Viewers have been puzzling over JMW Turner's singular vision of the world for over 200 years.
bq. Now an opthalmic surgeon is suggesting that there is no mystery; Turner, suffering from early, slight colour-blindness and later cataracts, was painting exactly what he saw.
bq. The debate over Turner's eyesight has been revived by the argument over a battered pair of Victorian spectacles, to be auctioned at Sotheby's next week. They are claimed as Turner's, but are a completely different prescription from those on view at Tate Britain.
bq. Consultant opthalmic surgeon James McGill has been studying Turner's work for years, and sees a potential patient for surgery which could have changed the course of art history. He believes both pairs were Turner's, evidence of his deteriorating eyesight.
Regardless, I really like Turner's work. You can see an online gallery
here
Posted by DaveH at November 18, 2003 1:08 PM