For this week's Art Talk we will be looking at the great compilation The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole.
In the Hudson River Group tour of the National Gallery of Art in DC I highlighted Thomas Cole as "the groups founder, leader and "father" and he was also the teacher of Frederic Edwin Church."
The National Gallery of Art has Thomas Cole's The Voyage of Life which is a group of four paintings beautifully set up in the museum in a circular fashion. Thomas Cole and Hudson River group artists were a part of the Romantic movement which "emphasized nature, imagination, emotion and the individual."
This set of paintings show the journey of "man" on the river of life.
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
The Voyage of Life: Youth
Thomas Cole, 1842
The Voyage of Life: Manhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
The Voyage of Life: Old Age
Thomas Cole, 1842
Thomas Cole believed landscape paintings could impart moral and religious values.
The Voyage of Life: Childhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
In “Childhood” a golden boat emerges from a darkened cave—a mysterious earthly source—from which a joyous infant reaches out to the world with wonder and naivete. Rose light bathes the scene of fertile beauty as an angelic figure guides the boat forward.
Looking closely you can see the infant in the boat the angel standing in the rear of the boat guiding it. The details of this oil painting are gorgeous, as seen below.
Details, The Voyage of Life: Childhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
In “Youth,” the voyager confidently assumes control at the helm of the boat. Oblivious to the increasing turbulence and unexpected twists of the stream, the pilgrim boldly strives to reach an aerial castle, emblematic of adolescent ambition for fame and glory.
In Youth the vegetation is still thick and green. There are also attractions in the distance that beckon the traveler to go explore.
The Voyage of Life: Youth
Thomas Cole, 1842
The Voyage of Life: Manhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
“Manhood.” As Cole said, “The helm of the boat is gone”; the voyager has lost control of his life. The angel looks down from the clouds as he is whirled toward violent rapids and bare, fractured rocks. Only divine intervention, Cole suggests, can save the voyager from a tragic fate.
The old tree is the only plant life left and the rocks are surrounding the traveler. Instead of the sense freedom and exploration of "youth" in "manhood" things feel closed in and limited.
In the series’ last painting, “Old Age,” the stream of life has reached the ocean of eternity where the voyager floats aboard his broken, weathered vessel. All signs of nature and “corporeal existence” are cast aside. The guardian angel, whom he sees for the first time, directs his gaze toward a beckoning, soft light emerging from the parting clouds—the vision of eternal life.
The flora is no completely gone from the scene. The angel is back and so is the direction the traveler is to go.
The Voyage of Life: Old Age
Thomas Cole, 1842
Hive Connection
Thomas Cole painted the initial set of painting for Samuel Ward in 1840. Samuel Ward died in 1839 without seeing the completed paintings. Cole got permission from the Ward family to show the paintings at the National Academy of Design in New York. Then the paintings went to the Ward family and were left un-hung and unseen. In 1842 he painted a second set while in Europe and this is the set that hangs in the National Gallery of Art in DC.
Sources:
NGA: The Voyage of Life
NGA American Paintings PDF
Your Dictionary- Romanticism
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