Indeed, Monet’s cataracts severely affected his vision. Colours no longer seemed as bright as before, especially reds, which appeared “muddy,” to him.
Aware of his illness, Monet began to rely on the labels on his paint tubes, and the order in which they were arranged, to choose the colours he would use for his canvases.
But “The Master’s Pupil” offers gamers the chance to “assist one of the fathers of impressionism as he perseveres through personal hardship, loss, and health difficulties,” according to the game’s website.
To do so, players have to complete 12 different levels of the game. They’ll play in Pat Naoum’s hand-painted settings, inspired by some of Monet’s greatest masterpieces.
“It was an interesting process of adapting a real-life story into a game. I had to get to know the beats of his life in great detail, which in turn created the levels’ arcs. It did require looking at his artworks quite deeply – not only at their style and colours, but also the context of them in his life,” he told Artnet News.
It took Pat Naoum seven years to create “The Master’s Pupil,” thanks to a grant from Screen Australia, the Australian federal government agency responsible for funding homegrown screen-based storytelling.
He has been documenting his creative process on TikTok from July 2023, starting a few weeks before the release of “The Master’s Pupil” on the online gaming platform Stream.
Exploring painters’ visual ailments
On the social network, Pat Naoum explains how careful he had to be with the shades used for the game’s backgrounds, so as not to betray Monet’s exceptional eye for colour.
With this in mind, he chose not to use black. “I learned a ton about Monet, but what often comes to mind is that he never used black paint. So known was it that at his funeral, his friend removed the black shroud over his coffin and said, ‘No black for Monet!'” he told Artnet News.
The video game “The Master’s Pupil” is part of a wider trend focusing on the health problems of some of history’s greatest artists.
Like Monet, many painters were affected by eye disease. Camille Pissarro suffered from dacryocystitis (an inflammation of the lacrimal sac), while Rembrandt had strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes.
Vincent van Gogh is said to have had xanthopsia, a vision disorder that makes things look yellow.
Scientists do not know whether this illness was caused by absinthe abuse, santonin – a drug Van Gogh took for gastric ailments – or the treatments he was prescribed for epileptic seizures or dementia.
Art lovers will be able to ask Van Gogh about his penchant for yellow as part of the Musée d’Orsay’s new exhibition, “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: The Final Months.”
An interactive terminal powered by artificial intelligence has been installed in the Paris museum to enable visitors to ask questions to an avatar of the Dutch painter.
It remains to be seen whether the AI-powered recreation will be willing to talk about the “Sunflowers” painter’s yellow vision.