Was Vincent van Gogh Color Blind? It Sure Looks Like It

[TalkingDog]

17. The generally accepted (tho technically inaccurate) types are red/green blue/yellow(ish)

and like anything inherited, can range from very mild manifestation to the complete inability to distinguish anything in that color range.

There is a complete inability to distinguish any color variation; in other words seeing in only shades of grey. (however, not 50... bad pun) But that is not the same thing as color deficiency.

Here is a really good site by a person who is color deficient. It has a lot of good information:
http://wearecolorblind.com/ In the upper right corner there is a little app that simulates the different forms of color blindness. Try it. Now imagine trying to use tints, shades and variations of the colors you "can't" see to color a painting or even a coloring book.



The three types of cones translate into three main types of colorblindness: Deuteran (green), Protan (red) and Tritan (blue) (and mixtures thereof, because you can have deficiencies in more than one color)



Imagine trying to paint the flower with some kind of underlying cohesion to your color scheme when you can only see the colors present on your palette in the shades from the other images. It would be like driving the Indy 500 in the fog with cheesecloth draped across your eyes. In other words, if you couldn't distinguish one or more colors with any degree of certainty, you would definitely not have such tight control over the nuance and range of colors used.

One of the assignments I give students is to copy a Master Work. Van Gogh pops up all the time as an option. If his color schemes and paint mixtures were simple, they would have less trouble reproducing them.

I usually discover my color deficient students when we start working with the color wheel or color mixing or in color theory. It becomes evident pretty quickly that they have trouble distinguishing colors that other people have no problems with.

Thank you for the thoughtful and open question.