James Smillie and Thomas Cole
The Voyage of Life – Childhood
1853-1855
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Mezzotint, etching, and stipple, Sheet: 692 x 1017 mm. (27 1/4 x 40 1/16 in.)
Image: 391 x 581 mm. (15 3/8 x 22 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Garrett Collection
Object Number
1984.81.2422
James L. Claghorn, sold to T. Harrison Garrett, 1885
Schweizer, Paul D., Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, 'The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole: Paintings, Drawings and Prints,' Oct. 5-Dec. 15, 1985, ill. fig. 59. Truettner, William H. and Alan Wallach, National Museum of American Art, Washington DC, 'Thomas Cole: Landscape into History,' Mar. 18-Aug. 7, 1994, Section VII; circulated to The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; and the New-York Historical Society. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 'Exhibition of Engravings, Etchings & Mezzotints,' Dec. 1874, no. 861.
Smillie, James, A Pilgrimage (unpublished autobiography), Smillie Papers, Archives of American Art, Washington, DC, reel 1710, frames 324-25. Abbott, Gorham D., Cole's 'Voyage of Life.' A Series of Allegorical Pictures...Painted by the Late Lamented Thomas Cole, of Catskill, N.Y., Engraved in the Highest Style of Art, by James Smillie, of New York, from the Originals in Pssession of Rev. Gorham D. Abbott, Spingler Institute, N.Y., New York: 1856. Schweizer, Paul D., ''So Exquisite a Transcript': James Smillie's Engravings after Thomas Cole's 'Voyage of Life',' (part I), Imprint, v. 11 no. 2 (Autumn 1986), p. 2-13. Le Blanc, Charles, Manuel de L'Amateur D'Estampes, Paris: E. Bouillon, 1854-88, vol. 3, p. 531 no. 5. Baker, William S., American Engravers and their Works, Philadelphia: Gebbie & Barrie, 1875, no. 12 p. 163.
Raftery, Andrew. "James Smillie Engraves a Voyage of Life." Art in Print 7.2 (July-August 2017): 12-18.
Signed: 1
Inscribed: RECTO: In plate, LL below image: 'PAINTED BY THOMAS COLE'; in plate LL in image: 'T COLE'; in plate, LR below image: 'ENGRAVED BY JAMES SMILLIE'; BC in plate: ''Entered according to Act of Congress U.S.A.__ by James Smillie in the Clerks Office of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.''; BL (pencil): '4 plates nx Before letter Voyage of Life.'; LRE, sideways (pencil, in rectangle): '12,299'; BR Corner (pencil): 'm'; TR Corner, sideways (pencil): 'Smillie, J.'. VERSO: BR Corner (stamped in violet ink): 'JL' inside 'C' inside 'INSPERATA FLORUIT'; LR (stamped in blue ink): 'THG' in oval.
