An ageing soldier, wearing medals won in the Sikh wars, is depicted reclining on a river bank watched attentively by a woman and a child. The three figures appear to symbolise the three stages of life whislt the title, the setting sun and the ruin in the background focus on the last stage of old age and death. The painting is set in Norwich, where Sandys grew up, and the bridge is said to be Bishop's Bridge.There is a larger oil version of this subject in the Castle Museum, Norwich.