''The Voyage of Life'' is a series of four paintings created by the American artist

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for hi ...

in 1840 and reproduced with minor alterations in 1842, representing an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

of the four stages of human life. The paintings, ''Childhood'', ''Youth'', ''Manhood'', and ''Old Age'', depict a voyager who travels in a boat on a river through the mid-19th-century American wilderness. In each painting the voyager rides the boat on the River of Life accompanied by a

guardian angel A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary deity, tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played ...

. The landscape, each reflecting one of the four

seasons of the year ''Seasons of the Year'' (; ), also called ''The Seasons'' or ''Four Seasons'', is a 1975 Soviet–Armenian short documentary film, directed and written by Artavazd Peleshyan. It was his second and last collaboration with cinematographer Mikhail ...

, plays a major role in conveying the story. With each installment the boat's direction of travel is reversed from the previous picture. In childhood, the infant glides from a dark cave into a rich, green landscape. As a youth, the boy takes control of the boat and aims for a shining castle in the sky. In manhood, the adult relies on prayer and religious faith to sustain him through rough waters and a threatening landscape. Finally, the man becomes old and the angel guides him to heaven across the waters of

eternity Eternity, in common parlance, is an Infinity, infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside tim ...

Background

is regarded as the founder of the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

, an

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization, there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arc ...

movement that flourished in the mid-19th century and was concerned with the realistic and detailed portrayal of nature but with a strong influence from

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. This group of American landscape painters worked between about 1825 and 1870 and shared a sense of national pride as well as an interest in celebrating the unique natural beauty found in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The wild, untamed nature found in America was viewed as its special character; Europe had ancient ruins, while America had the uncharted wilderness. As Cole's friend

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the '' New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poe ...

sermonized in verse, so Cole sermonized in paint. Both men saw nature as

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

's work and as a refuge from the ugly materialism of cities. Cole clearly intended ''The Voyage of Life'' to be a didactic, moralizing series of paintings using the landscape as an allegory for religious faith. Unlike Cole's first major series, '' The Course of Empire'', which focused on the stages of civilization as a whole, ''The Voyage of Life'' series is a more personal,

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

allegory that interprets visually the journey of man through four stages of life: infancy, youth, manhood and old age. The originals were done on

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

and completed in 1840, but a disagreement arose with the owner about a public exhibition. In 1841–42, when Cole was in Rome, he did a second set of the series which on his return to America in 1842 was successfully exhibited in several major cities and received further attention upon Cole's unexpected death in 1848. The first set is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

, and the second set is at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Works

The four-part series is an allegory that traces a man's voyage along the "River of Life," portraying the innocence of childhood, the confidence and ambition of youth, the trials of manhood, and the approach of death in old age. Each painting places the voyager and his guardian angel in a different part of the river and surrounding wilderness. Art critics have ascribed a variety of potential inspirations to the work, the most obvious being the Bible's "river of life" imagery and

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

's ''

The Pilgrim's Progress ''The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come'' is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is commonly regarded as one of the most significant works of Protestant devotional literature and of wider early moder ...

'', along with a variety of 19th-century poems, essays, and sermons. Cole called the series an "Allegory of Human Life" and wrote detailed descriptions of the paintings, conveying how each depicts a different stage of the man's life and spiritual development. The voyager has also been seen as a personification of America, and the series as a warning against westward expansion and industrialization. The versions of 1842 are not exact replicas of the 1840 originals, but the alterations are generally minor. The most obvious difference is the brighter colors of the replicas, perhaps due simply to differences in available pigments.

''Childhood''

In the first painting, ''Childhood'', all the important story elements of the series are introduced: the voyager, the angel, the river, and the expressive landscape. An infant is safely ensconced in a boat guided by an angel. The landscape is lush; everything is calm and basking in warm sunshine, reflecting the innocence and joy of childhood. The boat glides out of a dark, craggy cave which Cole himself described as "emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past." The river is smooth and narrow, symbolizing the sheltered experience of childhood. The

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...

on the prow holds an hourglass representing

time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

. In the first version of this work, Cole shows less landscape on the right side and thus does not include the river winding to the horizon. The perspective is also different: in the original, the boat is in the foreground, while in the second, Cole moves the boat deeper in the picture and portrays more of the river in the foreground.

''Youth''

The second painting, ''Youth'', shows the same lush, green landscape, but here the view widens as does the voyager's life experience. Now the youth has firm hold of the

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn ...

as the angel watches and waves from the shore, allowing him to take control. The subject's youthful enthusiasm and energy is evident in his forward-thrusting pose and billowing clothes. In the distance, an ethereal citadel towers in the sky, a shimmering white beacon that represents the dreams and ambitions of humanity. To the youth, the tranquil river appears to lead directly to the shimmering beacon, but at the far right of the painting one can just glimpse the river as it changes to become rough and difficult with the danger of rocks. 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."

''Manhood''

Third in the series, ''Manhood'', shows a now grown figure in the vessel, amid the tribulations of adult life. Storm clouds ominously darken the sky, wind whips at the man's clothing and rain falls in the background as the boat approaches a treacherous part of the river which has become rocky and rapid, running through a treacherous gorge marked by a gnarled, leafless tree. Gentler country lies at the bottom of the defile and the distant sky line lightens in that direction hinting of the hope of better times ahead. Among the dangers the man has not lost his faith: he has let go of his boat's tiller (which may have broken) and is part kneeling, gazing upward with hands clasped together. The vessel's figurehead now holds the hourglass while far above, behind and unseen by the voyager, his guardian angel continues to watch over from the Heavens, shining brightly through a break in the clouds. Cole writes: ''Manhood'' contains the most differences between the original 1840 version and the revised 1842 version. The modified version shows a reduction in the wall of rocks and more of the distant sea. As in ''Childhood'', he repositioned the boat, moving it further back in the painting and closer to the rapids. He also modified the stance of the voyager, from standing in the original to kneeling in the replica.

''Old Age''

The final painting, ''Old Age'', is an image of

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

. The man has grown old; he has survived the trials of life. The waters have calmed, the river flows into the waters of eternity. The figurehead and hourglass are missing from the battered boat; the withered old voyager has reached the end of earthly time. In the distance, an angel descends from heaven, while the guardian angel hovers close, gesturing toward the other. The man is once again joyous with the knowledge that Faith has sustained him through this perilous life to the promise of Heaven. The landscape is practically gone, just a few rough rocks represent the edge of the earthly world, and dark water stretches onward. Cole describes the scene: "The chains of corporeal existence are falling away; and already the mind has glimpses of Immortal Life."

Cultural significance

''The Voyage of Life'' was well received by critics and the public; the United States was experiencing the religious revival sometimes known as the

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the late 18th to early 19th century in the United States. It spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching and sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a k ...

. The four paintings were converted to engravings by James Smillie (1807–1885) after Cole's death and the engravings widely distributed in time for the Third Great Awakening, giving the series the prestige and popular acclaim it retains today. ''Old Age'' was used by Swedish

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band Candlemass as the cover to their second album, '' Nightfall'', and ''Youth'' for their third album, '' Ancient Dreams''.

References

Citations

Cited works

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External links

''The Voyage of Life'': A Chronology

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voyage Of Life 1840 paintings 1842 paintings Painting series Romantic paintings Paintings in the National Gallery of Art Paintings by Thomas Cole category:19th-century allegorical paintings category:Allegorical paintings by American artists Angels in art Maritime paintings Rivers in art Works about old age