Visionary art.

• Author: Freund, Charles Paul
• Position: Architect - Brief Article

THESE SPECTACLES, auctioned in the fall by Sotheby's, are said to have belonged to J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), the British painter whose wholly original treatment of luminosity late in his career inspired the Impressionists and revolutionized art. But British eye surgeon James McGill, a student of Turner's work, believes the glasses are evidence that Turner's late style was actually a result of his deteriorating vision. Turner "was painting exactly what he saw," McGill told Britain's Guardian.

Turner's vision has been debated before, but McGill's diagnosis is a specific one: The painter suffered some color blindness, affecting his reds and blues, and saw the world through cataracts. The latter would have resulted in his perceiving "exactly that effect of dazzling shimmering light we see in the paintings."

If true, such a diagnosis would hardly diminish Turner; it would make his achievements more...