Fine Canvas Art Blog

Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn

Paintings (Reproductions) / Rembrandt - 2 years ago - troycapc

We are proud to present our reproduction of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s work, “The Return of the Prodigal Son”.  This is a depiction of Jesus’ story recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Luke.  This work was completed shortly before Rembrandt’s death and is currently in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

In this masterpiece, it is as though Rembrandt was giving his final word on life in this monumental painting of the Return of the Prodigal Son. He interprets the Christian idea of mercy with extraordinary solemnity and presents it as a spiritual testament to the world. It excels in evoking religious mood and human sympathy. The aged artist’s power of realism is not diminished, but increased by psychological insight and spiritual awareness. Expressive lighting and coloring and the magic suggestiveness of his technique, together with a selective simplicity of setting, help to give the full impact of the event.

The occurrence is devoid of any momentary violent emotion which raises the event to a timeless, eternal plane.  There is a solemn calm that lends to the figures some of the qualities of statues and gives the emotions a lasting character, no longer subject to the changes of time. Unforgettable is the image of the repentant sinner leaning against his father’s breast and the old father bending over his son. The father’s features tell of sublime and august goodness, as do his outstretched hands, not free from the stiffness of old age. The whole represents a symbol of all homecomings, of the bleakness of human existence illuminated by tenderness of God; of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God’s mercy.

Rembrandt was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden.  He died on October 4, 1669 at Amsterdam.  He is renown as one of the greatest painters and printmakers in the European experience and the most important in Dutch history.  His was an important contribution to the determination of the Seventeenth Century as the Dutch Golden Age.

The painting’  main group of the father and the Prodigal Son stands out in light against an enormous dark surface. Particularly vivid are the ragged garment of the son, and the old man’s sleeves, which are ochre tinged with golden olive; the ochre color combined with an intense scarlet red in the father’s cloak forms an unforgettable coloristic harmony. The observer is roused to a feeling of some extraordinary event. The son, ruined and repellent, with his shorn head and the appearance of an outcast, returns to his father’s house after long wanderings and many vicissitudes. He has wasted his heritage in foreign lands and has sunk to the condition of a swineherd. The old father, dressed in rich garments, as are the other figures, has hurried to meet him before the door and receives the long-lost son with the utmost in fatherly love.

Rembrandt early achieved success as a portrait painter, but in his later years he had personal tragedy and financial hardship. His etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime and his reputation as an artist remained high throughout his life.  He taught nearly every important Dutch painter for over twenty years.  His greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portrait work of contemporaries, his self-portraits and his Biblical illustrations.  His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

Rembrandt displayed a thorough knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt’s knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam’s Jewish population.

We offer reproductions of this masterpiece and others of similar genres in our Religious Reproductions gallery.