A balding, older man sits in a golden boat guided by a winged angel away from craggy rocks to calm waters, toward a shaft of light piercing a billowing bank of clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The man and angel both have light skin. The man wears a crimson-red tunic and has a fringe of white curls and a long, white beard. He holds his hands up, palms facing out, as he looks toward the light in the upper left corner of the canvas. His golden boat is made up of wings and human bodies facing inward, the rudder and figurehead at the bow broken off. The man glides from low, jagged…
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The Voyage of Life: Old Age

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 - 1848)

1842

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 133.4 x 196.2 cm (52 1/2 x 77 1/4 in.) ; framed: 162.9 x 225.7 x 17.8 cm (64 1/8 x 88 7/8 x 7 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