The Wood-Boat, George Caleb Bingham, 1850

The late afternoon sun paints the clouds pink and casts golden light over three men waiting with a load of wood. The wood will be sold as fuel to any steamer that passes. In earlier decades, flatboats served as a primary means of river transport, but by 1850, steamboats had assumed that role. Besides offering a representation of a peaceful moment along the river , Bingham uses this trio of figures to illustrate three different stages of life: youth, adulthood, and old age.