<ASF>Thomas Cole - "The Voyage of Life: Youth" - Open Large
Grandma
it interesting to read about your technique with this post. I can't say
enough for this.............other than I see an angel there which means it
is a WET. :-)
Grandma
"Curmudgeon - Bill B," <w...@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
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The Voyage of Life - Thomas Cole
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Image:
Title: "The Voyage of Life: Youth"
This image is part of a four part allegorical series, "The Voyage of
Life," painted by Thomas Cole in 1842. This is what the National Gallery has
to say about the series:
Cole's renowned four-part series traces the journey of an archetypal
hero along the "River of Life." Confidently assuming control of his destiny
and oblivious to the dangers that await him, the voyager boldly strives to
reach an aerial castle, emblematic of the daydreams of "Youth" and its
aspirations for glory and fame. As the traveler approaches his goal, the
ever-more-turbulent stream deviates from its course and relentlessly carries
him toward the next picture in the series, where nature's fury, evil demons,
and self-doubt will threaten his very existence. Only prayer, Cole suggests,
can save the voyager from a dark and tragic fate.
From the innocence of childhood, to the flush of youthful
overconfidence, through the trials and tribulations of middle age, to the
hero's triumphant salvation, The Voyage of Life seems intrinsically linked
to the Christian doctrine of death and resurrection. Cole's intrepid voyager
also may be read as a personification of America, itself at an adolescent
stage of development. The artist may have been issuing a dire warning to
those caught up in the feverish quest for Manifest Destiny: that unbridled
westward expansion and industrialization would have tragic consequences for
both man and nature.
In March of 1839, Cole agreed to produce four paintings to be known as
"The Voyage of Life" for Samuel Ward, a wealthy banker and philanthropist.
The price agreed upon was $5000. Ward would die in November of that year
without seeing his commission completed in December of 1840.
On August 7, 1841, Cole traveled to Europe, visiting relatives in
England. Again, he visited France and Italy and journeyed to Switzerland.
Cole was a welcome and popular guest. He painted a second "Voyage of Life"
while in Italy and shipped the series to New York. Cole returned from his
second European tour on the steamship "Great Western" in July of 1842.
Actually, the image pictured here is an unattributed copy of the
original. But I was able to get a fairly good scan, so I used it. You can
find images of the original at the Artchive. These are links to all the
images in the series.
a.. The Voyage of Life: Childhood
b.. The Voyage of Life: Youth
c.. The Voyage of Life: Manhood [Not available on the Artchive site]
d.. The Voyage of Life: Old Age
The National Gallery in Washington DC currently houses the images. A
show was mounted there of Cole's work in 1994. A Time magazine article from
that time about the exhibit provides some insight to Cole's work and, while
a little harsh, makes interesting reading.
The Artist:
If you're interested, the best single place to learn about Thomas Cole
is from a funeral oration delivered by the great American poet, William
Cullen Bryant in May of 1884. Cole had died in February and because of cold
weather, few people were able to attend his funeral. Bryant's eulogy is 15
pages long and contains a fairly exhaustive, if not totally objective,
account of Cole's life and works. You can find it here.
For those not intrepid enough to brave Bryant's paean, here is a brief
biography of Cole.
"Thomas Cole, born in Lancashire, England, was trained as an engraver
of woodblocks used for printing calico. Because he did not have any formal
education in art, his aesthetic ideas derived from poetry and literature,
influences that were strongly to mark his paintings. The Cole family
emigrated to America in 1818, but Thomas spent a year alone in Philadelphia
before going on to Steubenville, Ohio, where his family had settled. He
spent several years in Steubenville designing patterns and probably also
engraving woodblocks for his father's wallpaper manufactory. He made his
first attempts at landscape painting after learning the essentials of oil
painting from a nebulous itinerant portraitist named Stein. In 1823, Cole
followed his family to Pittsburgh and began to make detailed and systematic
studies of that city's highly picturesque scenery, establishing a procedure
of painstakingly detailed drawing that was to become the foundation of his
landscape painting. "During another stay in Philadelphia, from 1823 to 1824,
Cole determined to become a painter and closely studied the landscapes of
Thomas Doughty and Thomas Birch exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy, His
technique improved greatly and his thinking on the special qualities of
American scenery began to crystallize. Cole next moved to New York, where
the series of works he produced following a sketching trip up the Hudson
River in the summer of 1825 brought him to the attention of the city's most
important artists and patrons. From then on, his future as a landscape
painter was assured. By 1829, when he decided to go to Europe to study
firsthand the great works of the past, he had become one of the founding
members of the National Academy of Design and was generally recognized as
America's leading landscape painter.
"In Europe, Cole's visits to the great galleries of London and Paris
and, more important, his stay in Italy from 1831 to 1832, filled his
imagination with high-minded themes and ideas. A true Romantic spirit, he
sought to express in his painting the elevated moral tone and concern with
lofty themes previously the province of history painting. When he returned
to America, he found an enlightened patron in the New York merchant Luman
Reed, who commissioned from him The Course of Empire (1836), a five-canvas
extravaganza depicting the progress of a society from the savage state to an
apogee of luxury and, finally, to dissolution and extinction. Most New York
patrons, however, preferred recognizable American views, which Cole, his
technique further improved by his European experience, was able to paint
with increased authority. Although he frequently complained that he would
prefer not to have to paint those so-called realistic views, Cole's best
efforts in the landscape genre reveal the same high-principled, intellectual
content that informs his religious and allegorical works. A second trip to
Europe, in 1841-42, resulted in even greater advances in the mastery of his
art: his use of color showed greater virtuosity and his representation of
atmosphere, especially the sky, became almost palpably luminous.
"Cole's remarkable oeuvre, in addition to naturalistic American and
European views, consisted of Gothic fantasies (The Departure and The Return,
1837), religious allegories (The Voyage of Life, 1840), and classicized
pastorals (The Dream of Arcadia, 1838). He consistently recorded his
thoughts in a formidable body of writing: detailed journals, many poems, and
an influential essay on American scenery. Further, he encouraged and
fostered the careers of Asher B. Durand and Frederic E. Church, two artists
who would most ably continue the painting tradition he had established.
Though Cole's unexpected death after a short illness sent a shock through
the New York art world, the many achievements that were his legacy provided
a firm ground for the continued growth of the school of American landscape."
- From "American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School"
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Techniques
Image: The original image was scanned at 300dpi. I adjusted the
contrast and brightness to maximize the image quality [as seen on my
monitor, anyway]. The original white background was then masked. The mask
was inverted and feathered to eliminate the "white fringe." I replaced the
white background with a green that was taken from the foliage in the
original image [RGB 000,125,000). I added a light drop shadow to separate
the framed image from the background slightly. I reduced the image size to
1024 pixels wide and reduced the resolution to 150 dpi. I then saved the
file as a JPEG with minimal compression. Finally, I used xat's Image
Optimizer to compress at 50% quality with 50% Magic Compression and "extra
color." This gave me a progressive jpg at about 90k.
Lettering: I typed all the topic names as a single phrase using the
Serpentine font 15pt in white on the same green background color. I applied
a homemade Blade Pro filter to give the lettering a goldish/greenish bevel
and added a drop shadow. I use the image slicer in PhotoImpact to slice the
image into individual words. This method insures that each topic image is
the same height. The sig was produced in the same way.
Script: The script is the same DHTML script that I developed several
years ago. I use it because it allows me to produce HTML that will
automatically resize the image to fit the screen of different resolution
monitors. It also allows a lot of text to be added but the text remains
invisible unless you want to see it. Recently I have moved the topics to the
top of the page. I originally had them at the bottom. Since they expand
downwards, having them at the top means that they remain visible when
expanded.
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Music
In keeping with Cole's prayer theme, the music is called "A Prayer for
Mankind" by Cal Eckhoff. Cal Eckhoff is from Louisville, Kentucky. This is
the information he has posted about himself on mp3.com
Artist description: I am a solo keyboardist, composer. I specialize in
"channeled" improvisational works, but also compose numerous other diverse
genres of music.
Music style: Easy listening "channeled" improvisational compositions
Musical influences: Early influence and study in classical music
Artist history: I have been involved in music most of my life, and
have played professionally for 30 years. I have been composing songs and
music since the early 70's and have won several local awards for songs I
have written.
Instruments: Yamaha P200 Piano, QY700 Sequencer
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Uncle Debi
--
Uncle Debi
Calendar Wallpaper
http://home.wnm.net/~debi/index.htm
Nenufar
Curmudgeon - Bill B,
take it. Glad you liked it. I tend to go on about things, what can I
say?
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A famous Curmudgeon - On Indigestion: To eat is human. To digest
divine. Mark Twain
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>
"Grandma" <Jfe...@nospamemail.msn.com> wrote in message
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Curmudgeon - Bill B,
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A Curmudgeon - On Art: "If more than ten percent of the population
likes a painting it should be burned, for it must be bad." -- George
Bernard Shaw
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>
"Uncle Debi" <de...@wnm.net> wrote in message
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Curmudgeon - Bill B,
gathered during my research that I didn't post. I tend to get
obsessive about this stuff.
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A Curmudgeon on a novel: "This is not a novel to be toss aside
lightly. It should be thrown with great force." - Dorothy Parker
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>
"Nenufar" <nenuf...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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EXB
"Curmudgeon - Bill B," <w...@bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
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The Voyage of Life - Thomas Cole
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Sara
as tutorials...
sara
li
i am speechless!
lovely and thanks for sharing your techniques!
li
Richard Eagle
Richard
Curmudgeon - Bill B,
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A Curmudgeon - On Women: "I do not believe in using women in combat,
because females are too fierce." -- Margaret Meade
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>
"EXB" <exb...@qwest.net> wrote in message
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Curmudgeon - Bill B,
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A famous Curmudgeon - On Alimony: "A lot of women are getting alimony
who don't earn it." -- Don Herold
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>
"Sara" <sara_...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Curmudgeon - Bill B,
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A famous Curmudgeon - On Marriage: "Take it from me, marriage isn't a
word -- it's a sentence." -- King Vidor
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>
"li" <liat...@neobright.net> wrote in message
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Curmudgeon - Bill B,
serviceable.
Curmudgeon - Bill B.
A famous Curmudgeon - On Advertising: "Advertising is legalized
lying." -- H. G. Wells
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>
"Richard Eagle" <re_e...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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John Wilson
love the extras in your stationery....oh btw.....hope i get to see a sig
file in my reply....you make great sigs Bill!
John : )
Aleeta
Aleeta