The Voyage of Life - Youth (after the painting by Thomas Cole)

James Smillie

Thomas Cole was contracted to paint the series by the wealthy Samuel Ward, for $5,000. All began well and in September 1839 Cole described his ongoing painting of Childhood as “the finest picture that I have painted”. Unfortunately, Ward died before the series was completed and bitterness developed between Thomas Cole and the Ward family, who continued with the commission to purchase the series but were opposed to the exhibition of the paintings. Because of the Ward family’s reluctance to exhibit the paintings Thomas Cole re-painted the entire series in 1841-42.

Upon Thomas Cole’s death in 1848 the Art Union voted to purchase the original series of The Voyage of Life for two thousand dollars with the intention that all four pictures be distributed as one prize in that year’s lottery. The Art Union also decided that, as a form of memorial to Thomas Cole, Youth should be engraved by James Smillie for distribution in 1849 to its members. The lottery went ahead and the winner, who was the editor of the Binghampton (New York) Courier, subsequently sold the paintings. In 1852 the New York State Court of Appeals declared the Art Union’s lottery “illegal and unconstitutional” and the Art Union went into liquidation. However, the new ownership of the paintings was not disputed and their owner contracted Smillie to engrave the three remaining works of the series in March 1853. The engravings were finally published in 1855-56.

"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 image of "Youth" is explained by Sandra L. Bertman in her book: "Cole, Thomas, Voyage of Life: Childhood/Youth/Manhood/Old Age." 24 April 2002. New York University Literature, Arts and Medicine Database.

"...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 commented 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).