The Stages of Life

Caspar David Friedrich's The Stages of Life is an interesting, yet somewhat trite exercise in symbolism. Initially, the lighting in this painting is very striking. The color palette is ambiguous, and it’s hard to tell whether it is dusk or dawn. The colors range from light to very dark suggesting a passage of time, with the bright lights representing the children, and the dark for the older persons.

Also interesting is the way each member of the group on the shore corresponds with the ships in the water. The children (who have just begun their journey through life) are represented by the two small boats which are closest to shore; the larger boats for the adults which are placed further out to shore, with the old man’s corresponding ship being the furthest out to sea. The painting seems to suggest that life is a vehicle which moves us through time, similar to the way a ship is a vehicle that moves us through distance. Time and distance are both journeys that people go through in their lives.

While the painting has some nice qualities such as the lighting, technique and symbolism it is overall an inconsequential painting. It doesn’t have much to say in a historical context, it simply looks nice and posits a simplistic kind of symbolism which conveys nothing profound.