“The National Gallery of Art was conceived and given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon, a financier and art collector who served as secretary of the treasury under four presidents from 1921 to 1932. During his years as a public servant, Mellon came to believe that the United States should have a world-class national art museum comparable to those of other nations. In 1936 Mellon wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to offer his gift of paintings and sculpture for a new museum in Washington, DC, that he would build and finance with his own funds. Roosevelt endorsed Mellon’s offer, and Congress accepted his gift in 1937”.

Dr. Dahesh, our Beloved and Guiding Prophet, who loved the arts so much, visited the museum many times at different occasions, where he would admire the paintings and the creativity of the artists. The museum exhibits Renaissance (1400-1600), Baroque (1600-1750), Classical (1750-1827), and Romantic (1827-1900) paintings and sculptures in the West Building, while the East Building exhibits modern, abstract, cubism, and other contemporary art styles. Dr. Dahesh was not impressed with modern art, and his visits were mostly to the West Building. One of his many visits to the museum took place on April 3, 1976, and he recorded the visit in volume 10 of his book “Daheshist Travels Around the Globe”. Here is what he recorded starting on page 183:

“…we took a taxi and headed to the, publicly owned, National Gallery of Art. I had previously visited the museum in 1969. It is extremely beautiful, with its eye-catching 20 huge marble columns, black with subtle white patterns. They are very tall, leading to a dome that resembles the dome of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, but not as high. In the large area between the columns, there is a beautiful fountain surrounded by beautiful flowers.”

The Four Paintings Depicting the Life of Man from Birth to Death

“We were roaming throughout this great and elegant museum, viewing every painting hanging on the walls of its 94 rooms. The paintings are all from famous artists, and I was drawn specifically to a set of four paintings by Thomas Cole, an American artist (1801-1848). These paintings are large, displayed in one room, and represents the various stages of the life of man.

The first painting represents childhood. The nature scene is full of beautiful roses and flowers; The singing birds fill the skies with their sweet songs; and the mountains are covered with lush trees that delight the sights. The child stood with a full hourglass, signifying a full life with a bright white guardian angel standing at the edge of the painting.

The second painting represents youth. Flowers of all colors filled the plains and mountains, and butterflies happily hover over them. The coordinated use of colors increased in this painting, thereby adding visual beauty and magic. In the sky, a beautiful white palace depicting the dreams of youth and the ambitions of those who are in their second decade, and the golden hopes they hope to accomplish. As to the hourglass, the sand in it is nearing the half full, and the angel is standing in the middle of the painting.

In the third painting, the youth matured to be a man, and nature is not as colorful as it used to be, and the angel is closer [further] to the man than in the two previous paintings.

The fourth and last painting depicts old age. The child, after passing through the stages of youth and manhood, has become an old man. He is seen riding a boat with a demolished front and its planks have become loose. He is looking in awe at the angel, who is now standing next to him. Also, in the middle of the painting, another angel appears in the air and approaching the old man to accompany him to the eternal voyage to another world. The hourglass now has a few grains of sand that will empty as soon as the soul of this mortal old man departs to the next world.

I left this room wishing that I can commission a brilliant artist to paint me duplicates of these paintings, at the same size, so that I can add them to my collection of paintings in my large museum.

We continued our tour of the other rooms; however, we were not able to enter 9 out of the 94 rooms, due to renovations. Our visit to the museum lasted two and a half hours. I added the total number of paintings we saw, and it was 838, and out of those, 68 paintings were religious, while the balance of 770 were of different subjects.”

I was personally with our Beloved and Guiding Prophet more than once during his subsequent visits to this wonderful museum, and I vividly remember his stop to admire these paintings. The subject matter was the launching pad for my book “Daheshism and the Journey of Life” that I published in 1993. I obtained permission from the National Gallery of Art to use the paintings on the cover jacket and in the prelude along with an interpretation from the museum. Below are the photos and interpretation:

Here is the full interpretation by the National Gallery of Art:

Childhood

As the artist phrased it, “a stream is seen issuing from a deep cavern, in the side of a craggy and precipitous mountain, whose summit is hidden in clouds. From out the cave glides a boat, whose golden prow and sides are sculptured into figures of the Hours; steered by an Angelic Form, and

laden with buds and flowers, it bears a laughing Infant, whose varied course the artist has attempted to delineate …. The Dark cavern and brooding sky is emblematic of our earthly origin, and the mysterious Past. The Boat, composed of Figures of the Hours images the thought that we are borne on down the Stream of Life. The rosy light of the morning, the luxuriant flowers and plants, are emblems of the joyousness of early life.”

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

The Voyage of Life: Childhood

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

© 1993 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Here is the full interpretation by the National Gallery of Art:

Youth

Young manhood takes over the helm of the boat, brashly confident, as yet unaware of, and feeling no need for, a Guardian Spirit, who stands aside and lets him take the helm. Just before Youth can debark to follow the illusory road to an equally illusory dream castle, the River of Life

suddenly begins to become turbulent, and abruptly veers to the right, a premonition that this young traveler is about to face up to the problems of Manhood. An increasing agitation of the River may be glimpsed at spaces through the trees, suggesting yet more difficult trials to come.

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

The Voyage of Life: Youth

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

© 1993 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Here is the full interpretation by the National Gallery of Art:

Manhood

For Cole, middle age was a time of many temptations, including tendencies to suicide, intemperance, and murder, all of which Cole has personified with ghostly forms in the sky above. Now Man has entered a wilderness, with a stormswept yellow sky in the distance to remind him of his inevitable timetable. The tiller of the boat is lost, and the voyager

can no longer control his destiny. For the first time, he doubts his own ability to cope with life, and he beseeches heaven imploringly. Still, however, Man greedily guards the worldly property he has amassed, half concealed in the boat, though a great urn has slipped free to suggest that in the end everything tangible is lost. To the right of the painting, trees stand riven by tempests,

and the increasingly agitated River of Life, now a torrent, presages Man’s final battle. His Guardian Spirit, still invisible to the traveler, watches calmly from the clouds, not forgetful,

but with an air of solicitude.

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

The Voyage of Life: Manhood

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

© 1993 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Here is the full interpretation by the National Gallery of Art:

Old Age

According to the artist, “Portentous clouds are brooding over a vast and midnight Ocean. A few barren rocks are seen through the gloom—the last shores of the world.” The boat, Man’s temporal body, has exhausted its inward force, and floats lifeless on a dead ocean. The hourglass that has measured his time is gone; the Hours, too. The traveler’s worldly accumulations have been scattered and no longer have meaning for him. For the first time his Guardian Spirit appears, standing before him and pointing to the glorious light that has suddenly and inexplicably opened through a whirlwind rising nearby from the sea. Angels descend to welcome Man to the Haven of Immortal Life.

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

The Voyage of Life: Old Age

Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

© 1993 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC