The Prodigal Son

Auguste Rodin is arguably one of the most influential artists of the modern age, and produced a vast array of sculptures in plaster, marble, and bronze, as well as many drawings. His works are known for championing the ruggedness, strength, and materiality of the human body and the powerful emotions to which it is subject. Rodin was awarded numerous public commissions in France in the late nineteenth century, and took up subjects ranging from portraits of notable men, such as the writer Honoré de Balzac, to those inspired from biblical or classical events.

This powerfully emotional work displays the vulnerability of its protagonist, a young man who kneels on a massive rock, torso uncomfortably angled, head thrown back and arms outstretched. His face, with open mouth, is similar to that in numerous other works by the artist that express sorrow, longing, or fear. The prodigal son, from a biblical parable, leaves his family and returns destitute, pleading for mercy and forgiveness. His despair, energy, and pentup feelings are fully expressed in Rodin's work.

The figure was created by Rodin for inclusion in the late 1880s in his monumental Gates of Hell; he appears twice in the right panel, both vertically and horizontally as part of a group with a female body, later reworked by the artist as the Fugit Amor group, and symbolic of the disillusionment and pain of dying love. Neither group is present in an April 1887 photograph of the plaster model for the Gates, but a freestanding Fugit Amor was exhibited in plaster in Paris in 1887; therefore, the initial conception for the group, and Oberlin's male figure, probably dates to that year. As he did with other figures from the Gates, Rodin enlarged, modified, and reused a single figure from his initial idea to create a monumental work, as is the case for The Prodigal Son.