The Departure of the Prodigal Son
1862–63
Medium
Point of brush and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over graphite (recto); graphite (verso)
Dimensions
6 x 12 5/16 in. (15.2 x 32.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1970
Accession Number
1970.114.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
James Tissot's *The Departure of the Proal Son* (1862–63) captures a pivotal moment from the biblical parable in Luke 15, where the wayward son bids farewell to his family before squandering his inheritance. Created early in Tissot's career, intimate drawing reflects the French artist's emerging talent for narrative scenes blending everyday life with moral storytelling. Tissot, who later gained fame for his detailed Victorian society portraits and religious watercolors, here demonstrates his affinity for dramatic human interactions amid urban settings, hinted at by the tags of buildings, men, ...
About the Artist
James Tissot · 1836–1902
James Tissot (1836–1902) was a French painter and printmaker who spent much of his career in England and became renowned for his meticulously detailed depictions of fashionable Victorian society. Born Jacques Joseph Tissot in Nantes, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Louis Lamothe and Hippolyte Flandrin and exhibited at the Salon from 1859. Tissot's early career in Paris produ...