The Voyage Of Life
The Voyage Of Life is a small collection of a series of paintings by American artist Thomas Cole in 1842. It consist of four paintings titled “Childhood”, “Youth”, “Manhood”, and “Old Age”
I discovered these paintings while shopping in goodwill as a four separate set piece. Its become one of my favorite art pieces to date simply because of the simplicity of the message. The voyage we all take that no one escapes, the voyage of life itself. The pains, struggles, fears happiness and successes we all share in different variations.
Getting older has caused/ almost forced me to become more self aware, spiritual, self introspective, and alert. Some people avoid it because of the uncomfortable fazes it has but I feel like overall if taken with the necessary time it’s benefits far outweigh any others.
One of the things that sticks out to me most about the series of paintings is the fact that the man is seen alone in each painting besides the angels guiding him. Life is a journey with twist and turns taking you to places of wonderment you’ve never been and to places you never wanted to see. Theres so many of us in this world but at the end of the day we are always alone with ourselves, at the end of our journey we’ll have to enter through that door ultimately alone.
The first painting “Childhood” shows a beautiful scenery with a young baby adrift in a boat entering from the left out of a dark cave which represents the womb of darkness we all emerge from. With the left side showing a sunny sprawling paradise of greenery which I feel is what all the beauty the world has to offer
The second painting “Youth” depicts a young boy departing in a boat in an even brighter and lusher setting. With the angel behind him sending him off, he sets off in the direction of what appears to be some kind of palace in the sky. To me this represents the big dreams and aspiration that we set off for. To some it’s marriage, a family, a career, financial security, fame. We all have different dreams that at some point seem so achievable and just in sight. Big enough dreams to be just out of reach but young enough to have the energy and naivety to chase them.
The third painting “Manhood” shows a man in his boat in waters rushing straight towards violent rushing waters with rocks and dead trees. He clasp his hands together looking up perhaps for a savior or saving grace. To me these are the troubles in life that creep in. Life is joyous to us up until a certain point when we get met with the reality of what living really is. Loss of peace and security. Death of family, friends and relationships. The disappointment of unfulfilled promises and dreams. I feel theres an opposite of everything good and bad. So with beauty of life, there also comes its ugliness. One thing that interest me the most about this one is the angel who once sat very close with the man is seen further and further away from the man with this showing the angel behind him in the sky while he looks in the opposite direction.
so often I feel like we look in the wrong directions in life when faced with troubles. Feeling hopeless due to truly unfortunate circumstances caused by us or outside sources, deserving or undeserving. Not seeing that theres still a light of hope in the situations that are there but unseen by us in the moment because of the murky skies
The fourth painting “Old Age” shows the man, old and grey in his boat in calm waters with an angel greeting him in the boat. He looks up the angel emerging from the sky now opening up with a bright light shining out. I feel like this is what it is in life to have finally reached the end. Rather it be literally for life or figuratively to a situation. An interesting thing to note is in “Youth” and “Manhood” the person is seen standing as if willing and ready for the venture ahead where as in “Youth” he’s sitting, legs not yet strong enough to start. And here in “Old Age” he’s sitting again, perhaps tired from the journey or can be seen as reverting back to his youth, back to who he used to be before the journey.
After have gone through everything in time you sit battle worn, tired but that same light and safety you’d been looking for finally reveals it’s face to you in the end once you’ve peacefully given in and stopped searching so hard.
