$500–$5,000. Common Biblical prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Watanabe's warm, folk-art Biblical prints have a devoted collector base. Larger formats and earlier works command more.
The Return of the Prodigal Son — perhaps the most beloved of Jesus' parables, in which a father runs to embrace the son who had squandered his inheritance and returned in penitence — gave Watanabe one of his most emotionally expansive subjects. The father's running, embracing figure and the son's returning posture create a composition of pure reconciliation: the parent who neither judges nor waits in dignity but runs. Watanabe's mingei aesthetic gives this parable's radical grace the same direct visual force as the story's own narrative economy.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Return of the Prodigal Son was created by Sadao Watanabe (渡辺禎雄).
Return of the Prodigal Son depicts figures, religious, and mythology.
