![The Return [The Return of the Prodigal Son]](7.jpg)
The Return [The Return of the Prodigal Son], by William Cave Thomas (1820-1896). 1866. Oil on canvas; 38 ½ x 32 ½ inches (97.8 x 82.5 cm). Private collection. Image kindly provided by the author.
This painting was shown at the British Institution in 1866, no. 308. It is an unusual portrayal of Jesus's well-known Parable of the Return of the Prodigal Son from Luke XV, 11-32. Surprisingly the prodigal is shown returning to the arms of Jesus, rather than to his own father as normally depicted in art, and the setting is not in the Holy Land. Christ's crown of thorns is visible in the left foreground. In many ways Thomas's depiction is more reminiscent of the Parable of the Lost Sheep as told in Matthew XVIII, 12-14 and Luke chapter XV, 3-7. The lesson Jesus was attempting to convey in this parable was that there was more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who have never strayed from righteousness.
Thomas treats this theme in a very Germanic academic fashion, far removed from what one would expect if a Pre-Raphaelite painter had treated the subject. A critic for The Art Journal, however, felt it was more reflective of Italian High Art traditions:
This institution, perhaps, from its well-known allegiance to the Old Masters, enjoys prescriptive proclivities towards high Art. Mr. Cave Thomas, a name honourably distinguished by noble aspiration, has in The Return of the Prodigal Son revived Italian traditions. The drapery is of classic symmetry, the columns and steps are designed for dignity, but true power is wanting, and the colour lacks harmony and even solemnity. The work will be commended more for its good intention than for the manner in which the thought has been realised. [69]
The Builder, however, thought Thomas had given a great deal of thought to his composition: "Mr. Cave Thomas sends a highly –wrought picture, to which, as in all his works, he has given much time and thought" (103).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum found much to criticize as well as praise in this composition:
"No. 308 by Mr W. C. Thomas, The Return, is a work so high in its aims, and so conscientiously wrought, as to deserve greater attention than it is likely to receive without a reminder to visitors. It illustrates the parable of the prodigal son, with a super mundane intention. We have the steps at the entrance of one of the golden mansions; the pillars which rest upon them are of glass or crystal; the cella is of gold – or, to speak literally, of gold-leaf, we believe. The returning spirit, a youth, ascends the stairs with an eager gesture, and is gladly welcomed by the lord of that mansion. While we thus venture to give this definition, it is with diffidence; it is possible that the artist may mean something different from that which presents itself to us upon his canvas. If wrong, however, we are bound to say that the fault is quite as much the artist's as ours. With the highest purpose, striving at poetry above the parabolic theme of the most exalted and least definite form, aiming to partake of and exemplify that essence of soaring imagination which least of all deals with the merely literal, Mr. Thomas's picture is at once one of the most prosaic and tangible displays of an idea we have ever met. His painting of the flesh and faces is as literal as Mr. Holman Hunt made that of the like in his Light of the World, but void of that inspiration of dignity and severe beauty which, despite the startling novelty of its conception and execution, won so many admirers for a picture in the very core of which there was much which could not be accepted as poetic in the noblest sense, and more that was open to challenge. With so intensely realistic a Lord, and a Prodigal made up of mere bones and flesh, we are at a loss to see what was gained by neglecting to make the crystal pillars of this peristyle so unpleasantly unlike crystal, or the cella and doorway at once so ugly and remote from truth in colour. [210-11]
A critic for The Illustrated London News praised the aim of the painting, considering it one of the best subject pictures in the exhibition despite its limitations:
"We invite the reader's first attention to the best of the so-called subject, incident, or figure pictures. Among these, then, there is none of higher aim than The Return (208), by Mr. Cave Thomas, an artist who is executing some important wall paintings in Marylebone Church. The subject is a rendering of the spiritual meaning of the parable of the prodigal son in the symbolism of art. The sinner is seen pressing himself forward with bare feet through briars and thorns to throw himself into the arms of the Redeemer, who stands invitingly within the silver columns and golden arcade of 'the house not made with hands.' Waxy texture and an opaque, leathery tone offend the eye in this picture; it is also a kind of German Academicism we should be sorry to see imported into our school. And yet the work has a dignity of conception and character, a precision of drawing and modelling, and a sense of keeping which give it a place apart and entitle it to respectful consideration. [143]
While the return of the prodigal son was a common subject in Old Master paintings it was less common in Victorian times. The best-known examples among members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle include Simeon Solomon's early watercolour of 1857 and E. J. Poynter's Mercy: The Prodigal Son, treated as a watercolour in 1868, and the oil version entitled The Prodigal's Return that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869, no. 110. J. E. Millais designed a wood engraving of The Prodigal Son for his book The Parables of Our Lord published in 1864. G. F. Watts did a painting in the early 1870s in the collection of the Watts Gallery and Alphonse Legros did several etchings of the subject. Other examples by Victorian artists include paintings by William Etty, Paul Falconer Poole, James Tissot, and Edward Stott and an etching by William Strang.
Links to Related Material
- Engraving of Millais's The Prodigal Son by the Dalziel Brothers, 1863
- Tissot's The Return (1881-82)
- Poynter's The Prodigal's Return
- Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld's drawing of The Prodigal Son by (1860)
Bibliography
"British Institution. Exhibition of Works by Living Artists." The Art Journal New Series V (1 March 1866): 69-70.
"Fine Arts. Exhibition of the British Institution." The illustrated London News XLVIII (10 Februrary 1866): 143
"Picture Exhibitions. The British Institution." The Builder XXIV (10 February 1866): 103.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. British Institution." The Athenaeum No. 1998 (10 February 1866): 210-11.
Victorian Pictures and Drawings. London: Christie's (10 March 1995): lot 178.
Created 1 February 2024