The Voyage of Life: Childhood
Thomas Cole, 1842
A baby in a boat, pushed from a cave into morning. Life as a ride you did not ask for. The angel steers. For now.
About this work
Childhood is the first of the four paintings in Thomas Cole's The Voyage of Life, an allegory of the four stages of human life. Cole painted the series in 1840 and repeated it with minor changes in 1842; the first set is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York, and this second set is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In every painting a voyager travels the River of Life in a boat, accompanied by a guardian angel, and the landscape changes with the seasons. Here the voyager is an infant, safely settled in a boat steered by the angel. The boat glides out of a dark, craggy cave, which Cole called "emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past", into a lush, sunlit landscape. The river is smooth and narrow, like the sheltered experience of childhood, and the figurehead on the prow holds an hourglass representing time. In the 1842 version Cole set the boat deeper in the picture and showed more of the river winding to the horizon. Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, meant the series as a moral and religious lesson told through landscape.
Sources: Wikipedia: The Voyage of Life · National Gallery of Art
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 5,121 × 3,459 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 34 × 23 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 14 in) · $100 · 247 ppi
Medium (24 × 16 in) · $150 · 213 ppi
Large (36 × 24 in) · $300 · 142 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of The Voyage of Life: Childhood?
Here. The Voyage of Life: Childhood is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 14 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 16 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 24 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for The Voyage of Life: Childhood?
The file is 5,121 × 3,459 px. Medium (24 × 16 in) is the largest size that prints at 150 ppi or more (213 ppi), the sharpest choice for close viewing; Large (36 × 24 in) prints at 142 ppi, fine from a few feet away but softer up close.
Is it legal to print The Voyage of Life: Childhood?
Yes. The Voyage of Life: Childhood is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
