Thomas cole paintings series#

This group of American landscape painters worked between about 18 and shared a sense of national pride as well as an interest in celebrating the unique natural beauty found in the United States. Thomas Cole is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art 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. Finally, the man becomes old and the angel guides him to heaven across the waters of eternity.īackground Thomas Cole, c. In manhood, the adult relies on prayer and religious faith to sustain him through rough waters and a threatening landscape. As a youth, the boy takes control of the boat and aims for a shining castle in the sky. In childhood, the infant glides from a dark cave into a rich, green landscape. With each installment the boat's direction of travel is reversed from the previous picture. The landscape, each reflecting one of the four seasons of the year, plays a major role in conveying the story. In each painting the voyager rides the boat on the River of Life accompanied by a guardian angel.

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.

Thomas cole paintings series#

The Voyage of Life is a series of four paintings created by the American artist Thomas Cole in 1840 and reproduced with minor alterations in 1842, representing an allegory of the four stages of human life.