Japanese scientist claims Vincent Van Gogh was color blind

Could it be that Vincent van Gogh’s choice of bright colors and shades is explained by his color blindness, and not just aesthetic preferences? A recently published essay by the Japanese doctor and poet Kazunori Assad is devoted to this issue. Assad made his conclusions after visiting the Color Vision Experience Room in Japan, which allows us to perceive colors as people with different types of color blindness. There he saw copies of the artist’s canvases, after which, according to the Japanese, he had a revelation.

Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night

Van Gogh’s paintings, Assad writes, are perceived much more naturally in digitized light. In this case, some color inconsistencies and roughness of the lines disappear. Assad continued his experiment on the study of the artist’s creativity using special software, as a result of which he concluded that Van Gogh suffered from a moderate lack of receptors for red.

On Assad’s digitalized copies of Van Gogh’s canvases, in fact, instead of the original, bright, daring colors characteristic of the artist’s creative manner, we see organic shades that flow smoothly and complement each other in a more traditional sense. “Creepy greens” in the painting “Starry Night” becomes more yellow, “Sunflowers” - gray, etc.

However, many experts note clear gaps in Assad’s arguments. The versions of the paintings that he used did not always match the original. Assad’s images are not of high quality, and there is a big chance that the true paintings look very different. The philosophical side of the issue also mixes with this. How can we say that Van Gogh’s filters processed with filters look better? How can it be argued that the artist’s provocative artistic manner was simply the result of his medical condition, completely ignoring the possibility of his special creative vision? Van Gogh’s color palette was part of the direction of post-impressionism and Fauvism in painting. Or were Paul Gauguin and Andre Derain also color blind?

Anna Sidorova