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John Halpin, The Voyage of Life: Childhood, engraving after Thomas Cole, 1852, 3 ¼ x 5 1/16 in. Dr. and Mrs. Charles A. Sarnoff, Great Neck, NY. View in Scrapbook

Many artists, including Halpin, Robert Hinshelwood, and James Smillie, made engravings after Cole's The Voyage of Life because of its popular Christian subject matter. Halpin's engraving of Childhood, along with the three other paintings, was included in a book entitled The Voyage of Life; Suggested by Cole's Celebrated Allegorical Paintings, published by Rev. Jared B. Waterbury in 1852. The publication of such a volume suggests the widespread influence of Cole's artwork on the religious community, and this book instructed readers on how to lead a proper Christian life in four stages, just as in the artist's series. The engraving replicates Cole's painting in composition, although it is less detailed, making the image more suitable for mass production. ¹