The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt, about 1668

Rembrandt kept returning to this parable his whole working life. His first attempt was an etching in 1636, more than three decades before this painting. He was in his early sixties by the time he painted the version Corinthian's wallet is drawn from, and it is generally accepted as one of his last works, made within a year or two of his death in 1669.

Some art historians have argued the canvas was left unfinished, pointing to the looser, less detailed handling of the background figures compared to the father and son at the centre. Others think that softness is deliberate, a way of pulling every bit of attention onto the embrace itself.

The painting left the Netherlands within a century of being made. In 1766, on the instructions of Catherine the Great, it was bought in Paris and brought to Russia, where it has stayed since, in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It has never been lent out to another institution. It hangs today in the museum's Rembrandt room, catalogued as ГЭ-742.

Corinthian's wallet is set from a public-domain photograph of the painting, the two figures carried across the leather face, glowing out of the dark ground.

Source: The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, ГЭ-742 — hermitagemuseum.org