The Return of the Prodigal Son

Rembrandt van Rijn's 'The Return of the Prodigal Son' (c. 1669), painted in the last year of his life, is the summit of his late religious work. Drawing on Luke's parable, a ragged son kneels before his seated father, whose hands rest in forgiveness on his shoulders. The composition is stripped to a few figures bathed in Rembrandt's golden, near-mystical light, and it has hung in the State Hermitage in St Petersburg since the 18th century as one of the museum's signature paintings.

Exhibition Venue

State Hermitage Museum

Saint Petersburg, Russia