The Voyage of Life: Manhood - Thomas Cole 1842

A man looks up as he kneels with his hands clasped in prayer in a small golden boat on a river that rushes toward craggy rocks in this horizontal landscape painting. The man has pale skin, dark brown hair and beard, and he wears a crimson-red tunic. A winged figurehead at the front of the gold boat holds up an hourglass. The boat sails to our right, away from calm waters to the left toward whitewater rapids along the right edge of the composition. A ridge of tall, jagged, moss-covered rock lines the water’s edge to our left and another channels the water on the opposite side of the river. Closest to us, a barren, blasted tree twists up from the lower right corner. The river passes off the right edge of the canvas, and calm waters beyond extend into the distance. The horizon line comes just under halfway up the composition. Bands of golden yellow break through the deep mauve-pink sky near the horizon line to our right. Diagonal plum-purple streaks suggest falling rain in the distance. A white glow in the upper left corner emanates around a person with long, reddish-blond hair and pale skin, who looks down at the man in the boat. That person wears a white garment and a golden star shines at the forehead. Smudges of fog blue in the sky above the man first read as clouds but upon closer inspection, the cloud-like forms contain the faces of three bearded men.