The Prodigal Son
William Etty RA (York 1787 – York 1849)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1835 - 1836 (exh at BI)
Materials
Oil on board
Measurements
667 x 273 mm (26 ¼ x 10 ¾ in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515513
Caption
This scene depicts the biblical story according to Luke’s gospel (16:11-32) of the prodigal son who stubbornly seeks independence from his father. He demands his inheritance early and leaves his family home to only spend it foolishly. Here Etty uses dark tones and colours appropriate to the subject matter to produce a work of great emotional force, showing the moment of his despair and before his subsequent repentance. He has expanded his usual subject matter of the nude to include the portrayal of animals. Indeed, many soft lead pencil sketches exist for the pigs and goat, some of a whole animal, but mostly just a snout, a head or a limb. There was a second version of this picture (bought by William Beckford; present whereabouts unknown), since William Makepeace Thackeray, who saw it exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838, describes the picture in Fraser’s Magazine as ‘grand and touching’ with the youth kneeling with his hands clasped in prayer whilst the animals have ‘horrible obscene eyes’.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, The Prodigal Son by William Etty RA (York 1787 – York 1849), 1836. A youth, full-length, seated on a rock at the right, his head bent forward supported by his right hand, his head almost touching his right knee, a staff in the crook of his left arm, dressed in skins which leaves his legs and upper body uncovered; a goat and two pigs at the left; evening landscape.
Provenance
James Stewart sale, Christie's, 20 April 1839, lot 59, (‘The Prodigal Son, seated in a posture of sorrow’); bt. Hume for 86 gns); Mr Child; The Duke of Hamilton, K.T., sale, 8 June 1882, (Graves 8 July), 10th day, lot 1070 (Graves, lot 70) bought by Agnew for 95 gns; Councillor E. C. R. Litler Jones, Liverpool, by 1933; with The Brook Street Art Gallery Ltd., London; bought by Lord Fairhaven, 13 March, 1939 for £36.15. 0. - transcript of bill: ‘Account from The Brook Street Art Gallery, Ltd., 14 Brook St., New Bond St., London, 13 March 1939. Painting. The Prodigal Son. (Collection Litler-Jones) £31. 01. 0. /Agreed profit on same 5. 5. 0./£36.15.0.’;bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
William Etty RA (York 1787 – York 1849), artist
Exhibition history
William Etty: Art and Controversy, York Art Gallery, 2011 - 2012
References
Farr 1958 Dennis Farr, William Etty, London, 1958 W. M. Thackeray, 'Strictures in Pictures', Fraser;'s Magazine for Town and Country, 17:102, June 1848, p. 763