The return of prodigal son

Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt
Leiden 1606 - Amsterdam 1669
The return of prodigal son
1636
Etching
156 x 136 mm; sheet 158 x 139 mm

Bartsch, Hollstein 91; Hind 147; New Hollstein 159, only state

Signed and dated front center Rembrandt f 1636.


Very fine brilliant impression, the landscape at the left sharp and clear, printed with plate tone on paper with watermark Pascal Lamb, mentioned by Hinterding for this print (see vol.II, page 164; vol III, page 324  Pascal Lamb variant A-c-b). In fine condition with regular small margins all around.

The print illustrates Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. The younger son returns to his father’s house, penniless and starving, after having squandered all his wealth, begging his forgiveness. The father, overjoyed, procures fine clothes and shoes for him and order the slaughtering of the fatted calf. Let us eat and be marry. For this my son was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found! (Luke 15: 11-32). Rembrandt interprets the Christian idea of mercy with extraordinary intensity and solemnity. This etching shows Rembrandt at a turning point: the work still reflects the baroque style of his early work but at the same time reveals a new rigorous simplicity