Object numberX.37

The Voyage of Life - Childhood

Portfolio/Seriesfrom the series The Voyage of Life

Date1855

Artist James Smillie (American, 1807-1885)

after Thomas Cole (American, 1801-1848)

CultureAmerican

MediumEtching and engraving with watercolor and gouache (hand coloring)

DimensionsImage: 15 3/8 x 22 13/16 in. (39 x 58 cm)
Sheet: 19 7/16 x 25 5/8 in. (49.4 x 65.1 cm)

On View

Not on view

Period19th c

Classification(s)

InscribedOn recto, printed within image, lower right: TCOLE; lower right margin: ENGRAVED BY JAMES SMILLIE; lower right: This world is but a bruised reed / And life grows early dim / Who shall be near thee in thy need / To lead thee up to Him? / He who himself was undefiled / With him we trust thee beautiful child." / Printed by H. Peters; lower center margin: THE VOYAGE OF LIFE _ CHILDHOOD. / From the original Painting by Thomas Cole, in the possession of Rev,,d Gorham D. Abbott, Spingler Institute, New York. / "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by James Smillie in the Clerks Office of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York."; lower left margin: PAINTED BY THOMAS COLE / "Who shall preserve thee beautiful child? / Keep thee as thou art now / Bring thee a spirit undefiled / At God's pure throne to bow? / PROOF

BibliographySchweizer, Paul D., "Copying Cole," in Canvas to Culture: Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life Lives On, Utica, NY: Munson Museum of Art, 2025, p. 24, 30

Vassar Exhibitions

Nature in America: Taming the Landscape

American Impressions: Nation in Prints

Exhibition HistoryNature in America: Taming the Landscape, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, June 29 - August 26, 2012;

Canvas to Culture: Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life Lives On, Munson Museum of Art, Utica, NY, February 27 - May 25, 2025

Label TextCole originally painted his four-part allegorical series The Voyage of Life on commission in 1839 – 40. When the owner prohibited the paintings from being shown publicly as the artist had intended, Cole duplicated the paintings in 1842 and exhibited them together with programmatic texts in various American cities the following year. By the time of Cole’s death in 1848, his influence on American landscape painting was profound, yet it was through Smillie’s posthumous reproductive engravings published in 1855 that the painting series became well known. -Calvin Brown

DescriptionDepiction of an angel with a cherub-like child in a small golden boat with flowers blooming from the inside. They travel outward from a cave and into a landscape full of bright flora with hills and craggy rocks behind them and dissipating grey clouds that fade to pink above them.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu