The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1842

A young man stands upright in the golden boat, his arm raised high towards that cloud-like palace which hovers in the distant sky like a promise, whilst on the shore an angel remains behind, his white robe still bathed in sunlight, his hand outstretched in farewell. It is the second panel in Thomas Cole’s four-part cycle *The Voyage of Life* from 1842, and it depicts the departure of youth: The guardian angel, who had been accompanying the child, now lets the adolescent go, out onto a river which - though the traveller cannot see it - curves and narrows in the distance. Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, constructs a landscape of almost excessive richness for this scene: on the right, clusters of trees and a tall palm tree layer together to form a dark backdrop; on the left, the valley lies bathed in the morning light, and rosy rocky outcrops lead up to the castle in the air. The allure lies in the light itself. Everything in the picture seems to be drawn towards the distance, and it is precisely this that gives the scene its melancholy: as a viewer, one knows what the young man does not yet suspect.

Hanging on the wall, the landscape format measuring 70 x 48 centimetres asserts itself without being overbearing - large enough for the eye to truly wander into the depths of the valley, yet proportioned so that the narrow frame does not overwhelm the picture. Marta, a decorative frame in antique silver with red lining, hardly competes with the subject; only when one approaches closely does one discover the worn edges, beneath which the red poliment shimmers through, and the dark speckles of ageing on the leaf metal. This close-up view is also worthwhile for the painting itself: on the satin-finished ‘Leonardo’ canvas, the angel’s halo remains visible as a soft veil, whilst the tiny blossoms on the palm trunk and the golden carvings on the boat stand out clearly against the fabric. The gaze lingers longest, however, at the point where the castle in the air fades into the sky - the fact that this transition is rendered seamlessly here lends the work credibility from any distance.