The black hole in Charley Tooropʹs “The Three Generations”: a neuro-iconographic analysis and reconstruction

The painting “The Three Generations” is considered one of the highlights in Charley Tooropʹs works. It essentially represents a self portrait of the artist herself, with John Rädekerʹs sculpture of her father Jan Toorop, and her son Edgar Fernhout. The completion of this painting took 9 years (1941–1950). However, the left lower corner of the canvas, sometimes referred to as “the black hole”, Charleyʹs left thumb with the palette and the conspicuously raised right arm with the brush can be considered structural imperfections. During the last 5 years of her life Charley Toorop suffered at least three cerebrovascular accidents, which raises the question whether the described pictorial inadequacies were of a neuropathological origin. Closer examination of the “black hole” area on the canvas disclosed a subtle ridge, as predicted and reconstructed by computer image manipulation. It is argued that Charley Toorop suffered multiple brain infarctions with subsequent partial visuo-spatial agnosia which prevented her from either recognizing and/or restoring the alleged imperfections in the painting “The Three Generations”.