The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Print in black ink depicting a man seated at a table in an interior while women gather around. Two embrace him from either side while turning to look up at one another. Another stands behind holding a wine glass and looking to another who reaches around the cluster towards a child picking the seated man's pocket. Fine cross-hatching shades the scene and French text runs along the bottom.

The Prodigal Son: Riotous Living

1635

Abraham Bosse

(French, 1602–1676)
France, 17th century
etching
Platemark: 26 x 32.5 cm (10 1/4 x 12 13/16 in.); Sheet: 26.3 x 33.5 cm (10 3/8 x 13 3/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1929.560.2
Catalogue raisonné: Le Blanc I 471, 77 (2); Blum 1185
Location: 101A Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

An open window reveals the brothel's crescent-moon signboard. Such symbols may have been associated with vice in seventeenth-century Europe.

Description

In the biblical proverb of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32), the son wastes his inheritance at a brothel; destitute, he returns to his father and is forgiven. Though the story is meant as a lesson of repentance, artists often focused on the brothel scene, which allowed them to explore the son’s morally questionable choices. This print depicts the interior of a brothel as if it were an opulent home from the 1600s. Three women, a man, and a child distract the son to steal his coin purse. One woman holds a triangular glass of wine, highlighting the role of wine in the son’s carnal desires and eventual ruin.
  • ?–1929
    (F. H. Bresler & Co., Milwaukee, WI, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    July 31, 1929–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 7, 2025-January 11, 2026).
    From Block Books to Baskin: Artists as Illustrators. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-August 17, 1986).
  • {{cite web|title=The Prodigal Son: Riotous Living|url=false|author=Abraham Bosse|year=1635|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.560.2