Details

Title

The Return, from the Prodigal Son portfolio

Artist/Maker

James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot (French, 1836–1902)

Date

1881

Medium

Drypoint and aquatint on paper

Dimensions

12 1/4 × 14 11/16 inches

Credit

Purchase for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection

Accession #

74.36 D

Location

Currently not on view

Destitute and penitent, the returning son is welcomed and embraced by his father. His rags and bare feet contrast sharply with the appearance of his brother, who is looking on skeptically from his warm cocoon of a heavy overcoat. Having grown up in the French port city of Nantes and lived in London for years, Tissot had firsthand knowledge of the social and economic dynamics of the seafaring merchant class. He revisited this milieu in several other narrative paintings and prints.

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