Physical Challenges: The Battle with Cataracts

In 1908, at age sixty-seven, Monet began to notice changes in his vision. Colors seemed muddy, and he had difficulty distinguishing between subtle tones. For an artist whose entire practice depended on precise color perception, this was terrifying. Diagnosis confirmed his worst fears: cataracts in both eyes, progressive and eventually requiring surgery.

For over a decade, Monet fought against this failing vision. He memorized the positions of colors on his palette, relying on muscle memory when sight failed. He labeled his paint tubes when he could no longer distinguish colors. The paintings from this period show dramatic changes—violets becoming dominant, forms dissolving into color masses, an overall warming of the palette as blue perception diminished.

The struggle reached a crisis by 1922 when Monet could barely see. Clemenceau finally convinced him to undergo surgery, but the operations were only partially successful. The recovery was difficult, with complications and setbacks. Special glasses had to be designed to correct the color distortions caused by the surgery. For a time, Monet saw the world in unnatural yellows and blues, leading to paintings that he later destroyed.

Yet remarkably, some of Monet's most innovative works date from this period of visual impairment. The late Japanese Bridge paintings, with their explosive colors and near-abstract forms, push beyond representation toward pure expression. Rather than giving up when precise vision failed, Monet found new ways of seeing and painting, turning disability into a different kind of ability.