Picture 7 / 8
For God so loved the world
Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1668
- Painter
- Rembrandt
- Collection
- State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
- Scripture
- Luke 15:20
- Published
- 4 October 2026
- Image
- Wikimedia Commons, public domain ↗
The Greek word for “perish” is the word Luke uses for the son who “was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24). Rembrandt painted the homecoming in his last years: the worn soles of the son, and the two hands of the father on his back.
It is one of Rembrandt's last pictures, painted shortly before his death in 1669, and more than two and a half metres high. Catherine the Great bought it for the Hermitage in 1766. The figures on the right have been read as the elder brother and members of the household; who they are is not certain.
The two hands of the father lie flat on the son's back. Much has been written about the fact that they look different, one broader, one narrower.
One shoe has fallen off, the other is worn through. This is how far he has walked.