Thomas Cole is recognized as the father of American landscape painting. Born in Lancashire, England, at the age of eighteen he immigrated with his parents and settled in Ohio. There he received the rudiments of painting from itinerant artists and subsequently moved to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy. By 1825, he was in New York executing landscapes. His powerful depictions of the Hudson River soon attracted the attention of patrons, as well as other artists.

In 1839, Cole secured a commission for a monumental series titled The Voyage of Life, which he completed and exhibited the following year. The series presents an allegory of the four ages of man, unfolding as a journey along the river of life. By 1842, Cole completed a copy of the work in Rome. He exhibited it there and, upon his return to America, in Boston and Philadelphia. Accompanying it was a written guide interpreting each of the scenes. Its popularity prompted the production of the series as a set of steel engravings.

The final image, Old Age, is a vision of death and immortality. The man has grown old; he has survived the trials of life. The waters have calmed; the river flows into the waters of eternity. The figurehead and hourglass are missing from the battered boat; the withered old voyager has reached the end of earthly time. In the distance, angels descend from heaven, while the guardian angel hovers close, gesturing toward the others. The man is once again joyous with the knowledge that faith has sustained him. The landscape is practically gone, just a few rough rocks represent the edge of the earthly world, and dark water stretches onward. Cole describes the scene: “The chains of corporeal existence are falling away; and already the mind has glimpses of Immortal Life.”