A thin face under a battered straw hat.
Bible in art · Luke
The Prodigal Son Begging (L'enfant prodigue mendiant)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
The younger son stands alone in a field, looking straight at us. Tissot dressed him as a poor herdsman, in a ragged white cloak and shirt, a torn straw hat and cloth wrapped round his legs.
A gourd for water hangs at his side. Behind him, under the trees, pigs root in the grass. His face is thin and tired.
From the text
- He is sent “into his fields to feed the pigs” (Luke 15:15)
- “He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating” (Luke 15:16)
The artist’s own
- The torn straw hat and ragged cloak
- A water gourd hanging from his belt
Details
His face
The gourd
A small gourd hangs at his side.
The pigs
Pigs graze under the trees behind him.
Wrapped legs
Strips of cloth bound round his legs.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.184) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".