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French impressionist artist Claude Monet's distinctive style was the result of long-suspected cataracts, researchers say.

Using computers, researchers from Stanford University led by Dr Michael Marmor recreated his famous Water-Lily Pond as the artist would have seen it.

The picture the team recreated was blurred with muddy shades of yellow and green which Marmor said ran parallel to the changes in his vision. Monet underwent two operations for cataract in 1923, two years before his death aged 85.

Although his problems were not identified until after he painted Water-Lily Pond, Marmor said his sight must have already been deteriorating.

'Monet may have used strong colours in his paintings because he was using them from memory or over-compensating,' he said. Marmor also recreated scenes painted by Edgar Degas. His findings appear in the Archives of Ophthalmology.

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