Prodigal Son

Benton occasionally used his art to report events (see Flood and Investigation hanging in this gallery). Prodigal Son, however, transcends facts yet still speaks to contemporary realities. Benton uses the lithograph’s title to evoke a biblical story, but the scene he depicts deviates from its telling in the New Testament. Instead of a warm welcome home, this anguished victim of the dustbowl and the economic depression of the 1930s is met by the ruins of his father’s house. He is greeted by bleached bones instead of the proverbial fatted calf.