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Overview
During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands. This etching was formerly in the so-called King George IV album, purchased by the Dominion Museum, forerunner of Te Papa, in 1910. A few years later, James McDonald, the museum's photographer, art assistant and sometime acting director, roughly removed it, together with the other Rembrandt prints, from the album, presumably so that they could be separately exhibited. They have not been returned to the album.
The subject of this print is taken from one of the parables in the New Testament. A man had two sons, one of whom demanded his inheritance in advance and left home. He then rapidly blew the lot on wine, woman and song, and when famine struck, he was reduced to becoming a swineheard. When he reached the point of envying his pigs, he came to his senses. He returns home in a penitent state, and despite his earlier excesses, is joyfully welcomed home by his father and his servants (Luke 15:11-32). The other (better behaved) son, not depicted here, is none too keen! But the prodigal earns forgiveness for believing in his father's mercy and love.
For this monumental composition Rembrandt borrowed heavily from a woodcut of the same subject by Maarten van Heemskerck - who is also represented in Te Papa's collection. (According to his inventory of 1656 Rembrandt owned copies of numerous Van Heemskerck prints.) Everything is effectively and movingly spelled out for us: the prodigal's filthy and abject state, the gracious and merciful father, and the household servants bringing the repentant son new clothes, symbolic of his salvation.
Some thirty years later, near the end of his life, Rembrandt painted the same theme,which is now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The great art historian and critic, Kenneth Clark, believed it was a good contender for 'the greatest picture ever painted'.
This impression is the first of three states (the first only by Rembrandt), before the reworking of shadows. However, is is a late impression and the landscape is weak. Another (superior) late impression of the same state is also in Te Papa's collection (1869-0001-408).
References:
New Hollstein Dutch 159, 1st of 3 states; Hollstein Dutch 91, only state
See:
Minneapolis Art Institute, https://collections.artsmia.org/art/55342/the-return-of-the-prodigal-son-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn
Museum het Rembrandthuis, http://webshop.rembrandthuis.nl/en/etching-the-return-of-the-prodigal-son.html
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt)
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art September 2017