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Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Manhood (Second Set), oil on canvas, 1842, 52 7/8 x 79 ¾ in. National Gallery of Art. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, Image courtesy of the Board of Trustees, 1971.16.3. View in Virtual Gallery

Cole especially struggled with the composition of Manhood, and a reviewer, Thomas S. Cummings, singled this canvas out for criticism when the series was first exhibited: "with the figure in the third [painting] we are disposed to find fault; he seems to fall short of the grandeur of the subject, and of the reach of the artist, as displayed in the other pictures." ¹  In reworking the second set of images while in Rome, Cole took the opportunity to make changes to Manhood. He moved the Voyager closer to the middle of the composition and opened up the vista behind the figure. These changes offer some relief from the unmitigated gloom of the first version of the scene. ²