SEBASTIAEN VRANCX | The Story of the Prodigal Son: The Departure of the Prodigal Son; The Prodigal Son's Feast; The Prodigal Son with the Swine; The Return of the Prodigal Son

Laurent Meeus, Brussels, by 1926; Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 11 December 1974, lots 58A–D, where acquired by the present owner.

Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Exposition rétrospective du paysage flamand, 8 September – 8 November 1926, nos 358–61.

M. Díaz Padrón, 'Un dibujo de Sebastian Vranck en el Museo del Prado', in Boletín del Museo del Prado, vol. 1, no. 3, 1980, pp. 156–58, the first and second panels reproduced figs 2 and 5.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Sebastian Vrancx. The Tale of the Prodigal Son. All these four paintings are on oak panels, which have been thinned, backed and cradled very recently. The Departure of the Prodigal Son. Signed with monogram on Pediment. This painting originally had a single central joint, and there have been two minor cracks at the upper left edge. The architecture is beautifully preserved overall, with some wear in the lower part of the arch. A fine craquelure can be seen throughout, with some older retouching visible in the background near the lower right edge. More recent retouching is evident in the shadow in the right base corner, and quite frequently in the horse nearby. The sky is also rather thin in places and has scattered older retouching, with more recent retouching along the top edge. The skies have, in general, tended to suffer more, while the scene itself is finely preserved with both the figures and the architecture largely beautifully intact. The Prodigal Son's Feast. Signed with Monogram on the Barrel. This painting originally had two joints, with a line of retouching along the upper joint, and just a short line of retouching from the left edge. Beneath the upper joint a further line of retouching, over a crack, runs right across. One further brief crack can also be seen at the left edge, visible under ultra violet light, all with quite recent retouching. There is still some slightly older varnish remaining, but undoubtedly there has been wear in the past, in the sky in particular, with a fair amount of retouching. However the architecture on the right has particularly suffered, sometimes uncovering magnificent drawing beneath. Some figures, for instance the man pouring wine at centre left, have become scarcely comprehensible, while others have since been strengthened. The ground beneath the figures in the foreground is slightly thin but the only retouching there is in the shadow between the central figures. Much beautiful painting is confused as the uneven result of past wear.
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Vrancx had a great sense of theatre, his compositions indeed are often akin to stage-sets populated with actors in costume, and in this lively set of four panels depicting episodes from the story of the Prodigal Son the artist adds a narrative to this artifice. The most theatrical of the four is the second, showing a well-dressed lady and a young gentleman (the prodigal son) dancing in a palace courtyard, a small string trio off to the left, and lovers all around. This scene recounts the expenditure of the prodigal son’s inheritance on an extravagant lifestyle which would ultimately lead to his returning home to his father, destitute (fourth scene), having lost everything and having been forced to find work as a swineherd (third scene). Intact sets of paintings such as these are extremely rare. No other such sets by Vrancx depicting the story of the Prodigal Son are known, but he did paint a good number of sets depicting the Four Seasons, such as those sold London, Christie’s, 9 July 2015, lot 29 (£1,650,500).¹ In those, as here, Vrancx reveals a predilection for light-hearted and often comical detail. This may be connected with his membership of the Antwerp rhetoricians chamber ‘de Violeren’ for whom he wrote and illustrated several farces and comedies.

One of the panels is dated 1632, a time in Vrancx’s career when he was in high demand. It seems likely that he employed assistants to help in the execution of the large number of commissions he received at this time, even though Jan Brueghel the Younger’s letter from 1634 says otherwise: ‘Vrancx has plenty to do but refuses to employ studio assistants, which means that work takes a long time. He does not allow copies to be put into circulation’.²

A high quality preparatory drawing for the first scene, the Departure of the Prodigal Son, is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Signed in the same place above the gateway, there are however numerous differences to the palace architecture in particular. Another high quality drawing for the second scene is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig.³

We are grateful to Joost van der Auwera for endorsing the attribution to Sebastian Vrancx and for pointing us to the drawings in Madrid and Braunschweig.

1 Diaz Padron notes a copy of the first scene signed by Coignet, though the architecture follows that of the drawing rather than that of the painting; Diaz Padron 1980, p.157.

2 See H. Gerson and E.H. ter Kuile, Art and Architecture in Belgium, 1600–1800, Harmondsworth 1960, p. 63, note 33.

3 Diaz Padron 1980, p. 158, fig. 4.