The Prodigal Son Demanding his Inheritance

René Gaillard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This engraving illustrates an episode from the parable of the Prodigal Son. The younger son asks his father for his share of the inheritance while the more responsible older brother stands behind his father's chair. The younger brother will travel and sqander the money before returning home penniless, but receive a warm welcome from his father. In Le Clerc's treatment of the subject, the biblic story is set in a fashionable eightheenth-century interior. The print was part of a set of six plates advertised in the 'Mercure de France' in 1751.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art