ART AND EYESIGHT. 469 



so that the eye is really focused for a point in front of the picture. 

 Under any one of these three conditions there can be produced on 

 the retina an overlapping of the colors, or what is termed in optics 

 circles of diffusion. It may be mentioned in this connection that 

 one of the most distinguished leaders to-day of the school of im- 

 pressionists in France, a master who has probably done more than 

 any other to bring that style of painting to public attention, has 

 one eye so imperfect as to be practically useless for his painting, 

 and the other eye is distinctly astigmatic, besides having the 

 changes in the hardening of the lens common to advancing years. 

 This was shown by tests which I made less than two years ago. 

 The question might be asked, Has every impressionist a marked 

 degree of imperfect vision from astigmatism or from other causes ? 

 While I am convinced that this is the rule, there are, of course, a 

 great many exceptions to it. Certainly the degree of impression- 

 istic tendency shown is by no means in proportion to the astigma- 

 tism possessed by a given artist. Various causes in the individual 

 cases combine to influence the results. Imitation of a popular 

 style is undoubtedly a potent factor, and many artists of late have 

 certainly modified their previous methods in the honest desire to 

 get more light into their pictures, as they would say, or to 

 paint in a higher key. While the artistic instinct itself may be 

 unchangeable from age to age, it is not strange that the expres- 

 sion of that instinct in painting should strive for greater perfec- 

 tion, and in doing so make use of any aids which science may 

 offer. 



But we must not confuse this optical trick of the impressionist 

 with his mental condition. It is well known that when the pic- 

 tures of the extremists of this school were first exhibited in the 

 Paris Salon, they were called the works of the impressionists, for 

 the reason that they were supposed to represent the impression of 

 the artists at the moment. They were expressions of the lyric 

 mood, as it were, and represented, not Nature, but the mental at- 

 titude of the painter. (If purple shadows were given to a rock, 

 and no one else had ever seen such shadows, that was of no con- 

 sequence simply, so much the worse for the rock. Real repre- 

 sentation was not the aim.) When the original of a portrait com- 

 plained that there was not the least resemblance to himself in the 

 picture, the impressionist replied : " Of course not. This is not 

 photography ; it is art." With some subjects such idealism is 

 convenient. But in the extreme it shows not an astigmatism of 

 the eye, but of the brain. The two should not be confounded. 



A few practical conclusions may be drawn from our study of 

 art and eyesight. These are briefly : 



1. As far as the artist is concerned, if he wishes to avoid in- 

 creasing astigmatism, it is necessary for him to abstain from this 



