Painting of a man trying to help his drowning family.

The Thought-Provoking Message Behind This Painting

Painting of a man trying to help his drowning family.

No doubt, the painting you are looking at is beautiful. But did you know that the symbolic moral message behind it is equally profound and thought-provoking?

In the painting, you see a man trying to save his father while ignoring his wife and child. This scene represents a human’s emotional struggles, where the father symbolizes the past, the wife represents the present, and the child signifies the future.

The man is seen clinging to the old man — or, we could say, old memories — while neglecting the beautiful present and the promising future ahead, much like we often do. Letting go of the past is hard, but it’s the rational thing to do.

The painting is called “The Illusions of Life” by Octave Tassaert, a renowned painter known for expressing philosophical ideas through his work.

In this painting, Octave reflects on a man’s tendency to hold on to the past rather than live in the present and plan for the future.

Note: This Story was first published on my Medium account.