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An Early Effect of Wyndham Lewis' Pituitary Tumour on His Art: an Inquiry Prompted by a Note in the World Through Blunted Sight

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An Early Effect of Wyndham Lewis' Pituitary Tumour on His Art: an Inquiry Prompted by a Note in the World Through Blunted Sight Eye (1988) 2, 677-681 An Early Effect of Wyndham Lewis' Pituitary Tumour on his Art: An Inquiry Prompted by a Note in The World Through Blunted Sight J, F, CONWAY Nottingham Summary An avenue of research suggested by Patrick Trevor-Roper's 'inquiry into the influence of defec­ tive vision on art and character' provides a possible solution to an art-historical problem. It is proposed that questions raised by Percy Wyndham Lewis' red portraits of 1937 can be answered in terms of his intracranial tumour. The World Through Blunted Sight was pub­ continuing- influence lies in the areas of lished at an interesting moment in the inquiry which it suggests to the medical art­ development of modern art-historical historian. theory. 1 The traditional view, which A case in point concerns Percy Wyndham regarded the visual appearance of a work of Lewis (1882-1957), the prime mover of Vor­ art as significantly determined by some ticism, an avant-garde art movement in Eng­ relationship between the individual artist's land which was influenced by both Cubism will and previous artistic styles, was under and Futurism. Interest in Lewis was encour­ attack. An alternative, competing theory saw aged by the Exhibition British Art in the this appearance as determined more by the Twentieth Century at the Royal Academy, social, political and economic conditions sur­ London, in 1987 which afforded an oppor­ rounding its production. Different initial tunity to view his work in considerable assumptions could now lead to different number. forms of inquiry into, and thus to different Art-historians seek to establish, inter alia, interprative conclusions about, a given work why paintings look as they do and two of the of art. In this atmosphere an artist's biog­ many portraits of his wife, Anne, which raphical details tended to be treated by the Lewis painted in the 1930s appear particu­ traditionalists as relevant to his work only to larly to invite the question. Entitled Red Por­ the extent that they supported assumptions trait, 1937, (Fig. 1) and Froanna - Portrait of about the meaning and value of his work, the Artist's Wife, 1937, (Fig. 2) they are while social historians of art regarded them remarkable for their pervading rich red col­ as pertinent only insofar as they upheld ouration. Equally remarkable perhaps is the assumptions about the determining effect of fact that little attempt appears to have been basic external conditions. Trevor-Roper's made hitherto to explain their unusual book may be seen as a corrective to both pos­ appearance. itions in that he showed that an artist's medi­ Michel, in his monograph on Lewis, cal biography could have a determining effect accepts Red Portrait's (Fig. 1) monochrome upon his work. Another aspect of the book's simply as part of the work's stylistic appeal Correspondence to: 1. F. Conway BA MRCGP M1CGP, 14 Croft Road, Edwalton, Nottinghamshire. NG12 4BW 678 J. F. CONWAY while his reference to Froanna's (Fig. 2) 're­ understood. Interpretation of print is facili­ straint' is surprising in view of its chromatic tated by the use of a conventionally agreed extremism . 2 In his biography of the artist symbol - system but the key to a work of art is Myers makes no comment on the predomin­ often less readily to hand. We are, however, ant colour in his account of Froanna (Fig. 2) culturally conditioned to expect a conven­ and regards Red Portrait (Fig. 1) as reflecting tional form of realistic representation in por­ the glowing coals in the painted fireplace.3 traiture and in the works under consideration He thereby relates the colour to the most our eX\'lectations are effective\'j fulfilled in obviously naturally red component of the terms of both line and form. But in the mat­ composition and engages with its visual ter of colour these expectations are denied impact, but he falls short of explaining why and frustrated and we have difficulty in asses­ Lewis painted it as he did by eschewing criti­ sing the significance of the almost unrelieved cal art-historical analysis in favour of retinal red. fact. Attempts to interpret the colour as a In addition to such fact, and often in its metaphor bring us no closer to a solution: absence in the case of abstract works, high concepts such as fire, danger, anger or even art communicates ideas, thoughts, emotions, menstruation might conceivably be denoted concepts and concerns. This it achieves by a by such surfeit of Ted but are belied by the variety of representational means. Like calm of the sitter's pose. Equally the question printed pages works of art must be read and of dawn or sunset seems irrelevant in the not just looked at if their content is to be interior settings, while red as an indicator of political radicalism is biographically inap­ propriate to both subject and artist. A possible alternative starting point in the search for an explanation of Lewis' deep con­ cern with red in 1937 is suggested by Trevor- Fig. 2. Wyndham Lewis: Froanna - Portrait of Fig. 1. Wyndham Lewis: Red Portrait. 1937. the Artist's Wife. 1937. Reproduced by permission Reproduced by permission of Rutland Gallery, of Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries. London. Copyright: Estate of Mrs G. A. Wyn­ Copyright: Estate of Mrs G. A. Wyndham Lewis. dham Lewis. By permission. By permission. AN EARLY EFFECT OF WYNDHAM LEWIS' PITUITARY TUMOUR ON HIS ART 679 Roper's reference to the artist's brain, pre­ damage to the visual pathway associated with served with its tumour in the Pathological lesions at any site between the eye and the Museum at Westminster Hospital, London,4 occipital lobes6 and the Colour Rule referred The unusually large chromophobe to by Kestenbaum reminds us that red-green adenoma was found at autopsy to have perception is particularly vulnerable in destroyed the sella turcica and invaded the nerve-fibre lesions while blue-yellow vision underlying sphenoidal sinus, The museum tends to be more affected in retinal condi­ specimen consists of a saggital section of the tions,7 The term 'disproportion' was given to artist's brain (Figs, 3 and 4) which shows the the excess of red-green deficit over that for tumour pressing upon the posterior aspect of white in conduction defects by Roenne in the optic chiasma, stretching it to the thin­ 19118 and Traquair's observation that in ness of paper and sparing very few chiasmal lesions defects for colour are often neurofibres, Lewis was found to have the found before those for white has been con­ classical bitemporal hemianopia associated firmed by Walsh and Hoyt,9 The importance with this tumour just before World War IP of colour perimetry in elucidating the ocular but the clinical notes accompanying his pre­ signs of pituitary tumours has been served brain date the beginnings of his visual emphasised by Lyle and CloverlO and by Ale­ problems to some twenty years before his xander, who also noted that the subtlest death, i,e, to about 1937, when Figures 1 and degrees of colour-field loss occur with 2 were painted, expanding lesions at chiasmal level, I I Meadows has pointed out that colour per­ Patients with pressured ocular pathways are ception is a very sensitive indicator of partial more likely to be aware of dyschromatopia if Fig. 3. Preserved saggital section of Lewis' brain -lateral view. Kindly supplied by Westminster Hospi­ tal, London. l. F. CONWAY 680 5 4 3 :2 I ¢ 2 3 rrtrIi1ititm£1fWIllirht :illhhi.frf." :��;L1rr:tJ.tr;i±h trhfiu5h!c .. Fig. 4. Preserved saggital section of Lewis' brain -inferior view. Kindly supplied by Westminster Hospi- ' tal, London. colour is of particular importance in their ions. Yet he is not a sleepwalker: he has everyday lives. Knight, Hoyt and Wilson his eye fixed upon a small red bird, upon a describe a biology professor with a prechias­ red bough, within a large red tree. 14 mal lesion who reported his inability to dis­ tinguish the colour of certain stains under the Lewis explains that the bridge represents microscope. 12 And Huber emphatically World War I and that it carries his cast of reminds us that the colour sensation for red is characters, chief among them himself, from most vulnerable and will be modified or the pre-War world to a very different 'land­ destroyed before alteration of the sensation for scape'. From the context the metaphor white appears (his italics) .13 appears to derive from the Willow Pattern of In the light of the foregoing it would seem domestic crockery but there is no textual clue reasonable to suggest that Lewis would have to indicate why red was preferred to the experienced red dyschromatopia, analogous design's more traditional blue. One post­ to the biology professor's difficulty with ulates that this literary engagement with red­ eosin, when his ocular problems began in ness was, like his parallel painterly concern, 1937. In that year too he wrote his autobiog­ mediated by Lewis' endangered appreciation raphical Blasting and Bombardiering and in of red at a time when his blue vision was still the Introduction we read: uninfluenced by his tumour. The depth of his involvement with the threatened hue is My book is about a group of people cros­ understandable when we consider the shock sing a bridge. The bridge is red, the to a practising artist of finding himself being people are red, the sky is red .. [The deserted by his sense of a primary colour. principal figure 1 scarcely sees his compan- If we return to Red Portrait (Fig, 1) we can AN EARLY EFFECT OF WYNDHAM LEWIS' PITUITARY TUMOUR ON HIS ART 681 see, pace Myers, that the artist has ensured Harrison during the preparation of this paper which that we concentrate on redness as such in this represents part of a thesis to be submitted to Trinity portrait rather than redness as a reflective College, Dublin for the degree of Master in Letters (M.
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