The Return of the Prodigal Son
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
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About this painting
The father's two hands do not match. The left, on the kneeling son's shoulder, is strong and muscular; the right is smaller, softer, a mother's hand. Henri Nouwen: he touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand.
Luke has the father run while the son is yet a great way off, and fall upon his neck. Nothing is asked first.
The elder brother keeps his arms held tight against his body. Rembrandt's late style, broad and sketchy, leaves the parable to hands — and this homecoming, bought for Catherine the Great in 1767, never came home.
Sources: State Hermitage Museum object entry, Google Arts & Culture · Google Arts & Culture, 'Where to Catch Rembrandt Around the World' · Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-164 · Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (New York: Doubleday, 1992); read verbatim as reproduced at 'My Inward Journey' · Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (New York: Doubleday, 1992); read verbatim as reproduced by the National Storytelling Network · Juliet Benner, 'A Meditation on Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son', Conversatio Divina, 1 October 2003 · Luke 15:20, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)
And rising up, he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion and running to him fell upon his neck and kissed him.
Luke 15:20 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 30,000 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.