The Voyage of Life - Youth
Engraving after Thomas Cole, 1850

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The Voyage of Life - Youth
Thomas Cole (1801-1848) (after)
James Smillie (engraver)
The Voyage of Life - Youth
J. Dalton, New York: 1850
Engraving
21.5 x 27 inches
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

This print of The Voyage of Life - Youth, is from a series of four based on the original painting for the American Art Union in New York, dedicated to its members in 1849.

The Voyage of Life series, by the famous American artist Thomas Cole, is an allegory of the four stages of man: childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. In each painting the voyager, accompanied by a guardian angel, rides in a boat on the River of Life. The landscape, corresponding to the seasons of the year, plays a major role in telling the story.

The series is explained by Sandra L. Bertman:

"...here the view widens as does the voyager's experience. Now the youth grabs the tiller firmly as the angel watches from the shore. The boy's enthusiasm and energy is evident in his forward-thrusting pose and billowing clothes. In the distance, a ghostly castle hovers in the sky, a white and shimmering beacon that represents the unattainable ambitions and dreams of man. To the youth, the calm river seems to lead straight to the castle, but at the far right of the painting one can just glimpse the river as it becomes rough, choppy, and full of rocks. The journey will not be smooth or easy, but the boy does not see this Cole comments on the landscape and the youth's ambitions: "The scenery of the picture--its clear stream, its lofty trees, its towering mountains, its unbounded distance, and transparent atmosphere--figure forth the romantic beauty of youthful imaginings, when the mind elevates the Mean and Common into the Magnificent, before experience teaches what is the Real." (Earl A. Powell, Thomas Cole. Harry N. Abrams, New York,1990. p. 89)

Reference:

Bertman, Sandra L. "Cole, Thomas, Voyage of Life: Childhood/Youth/Manhood/Old Age." 24 April 2002. New York University Literature, Arts and Medicine Database. http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=10317 (14 December 2004).