A young man sets out in a golden boat on a river that winds from the bottom right corner of this horizontal painting across a lush landscape and into the distance before disappearing beyond two rocky outcroppings far off to our right. Hazy in the distance, the jagged peaks of a barren red mountain rise into an almost cloudless blue sky. To our left, a semi-transparent, white palace looms above and beyond the mountain, filling most of the upper left quadrant of the composition. Hills and valleys leading from the mountain and palace are dotted with trees and carpeted with grass. A winged and…
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The Voyage of Life: Youth

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 - 1848)

1842

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 134.3 x 194.9 cm (52 7/8 x 76 3/4 in.) ; framed: 162.6 x 224.5 x 17.7 cm (64 x 88 3/8 x 6 15/16 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art