Picture in Focus: The Prodigal Son by Frank Brangwyn

September 12, 2021

Picture in Focus: The Prodigal Son by Frank Brangwyn

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired hands of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no wore worthy to be called thy son: make me one of they hired servants. (Luke 15: 14-19, KJV)

In this drawing in red charcoal and pencil, British Artist Frank Brangwyn pictures the moment when the Prodigal Son reaches rock bottom, a pig keeper in service to a foreigner, reduced to stealing food from his porcine charges. As the 1st Century listeners of Christ's story well knew, it was a fate doubly shameful for a Jew to accept alien bondage and dwell among unclean animals--but it is the kind of extreme degradation that prompts a change of heart. In this study in ultimate despair, now in the gallery of the Frank Brangwyn profile page, the wayward son has turned his back on us, just another rounded form indistinguishable from the pigs beside him. They are clearly of more interest to the artist, judging from the additional marginal sketches of their snouts! Note, as well, the glimpse of an elephant from a non-biblical tale to be told. (John Kohan)