Description of the picture:
The Return of the Prodigal Son – Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn. Around 1668. Oil on canvas. 262×205
One of the pinnacles of the work of the great Dutch artist is considered a painting The Return of the Prodigal Son. It was written in the last decade of the master’s life, when he was already weak, old and impoverished, leading a half-starved existence. Prior to this, Rembrandt (1606-1669) repeatedly referred to the plot of the “prodigal son” in his graphic works.
The picturesque surface of the canvas literally radiates the warmth of the Rembrandt palette, flickering chiaroscuro emphasizes the figures of the main characters. In the images of the bowing old man and his kneeling son, the painter expresses a very complex range of feelings: repentance and mercy, boundless love for his child and the bitterness of late insight. In the painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son” Rembrandt’s psychological talent was fully revealed, because he invested all his creative experience in it."
