page_title: The Prodigal Son (Barnard)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: The Prodigal Son (Barnard) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: George Grey Barnard's studio at Moret, near Paris.
context_page_description: The Prodigal Son is a sculpture group by George Grey Barnard that depicts the loving reunion of the father and son from the New Testament "Parable of the Prodigal Son."
  Three examples exist in marble:
  Original: Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, marble, 81.25 in x 54 in x 60.5 in, carved by Florio Piccirilli in New York City, 1909. One of Barnard's sixteen twice-life-size figures in the sculpture groups that flank the Capitol's main entrance.
  Replica: Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, marble, 81.25 in x 54 in x 60.5 in, carved by Florio Piccirilli in New York City, 1909. Installed outside the museum's main entrance.
  Reduced-size replica: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, marble, 37 in x 24.5 in x 18 in, carved by Barnard outside Paris, 1906. Exhibited inside the museum.
  A plaster example of The Prodigal Son was shown in the 1963 centenary exhibition of Barnard's work, but is currently unlocated.
context_section_description: Barnard was awarded the most important commission of his career in 1902, the sculpture groups for the Pennsylvania State Capitol. He left his teaching position at the Art Students League of New York in spring 1903, and moved to Paris. Barnard and his assistants toiled for nearly eight years on the twenty-seven figures in the sculpture groups. One of the first sculptures completed was The Prodigal Son—in 1904, while his assistants were modeling the twice-life-size version of it in clay, Barnard was pointing and carving the reduced-size version in marble. 
  The completed groups in plaster were shipped to New York City in 1909, to be carved in marble by Furio Piccirilli.  The marble groups were completed in early 1910, and shipped back to France to make their debut at the Salon des Artistes Francais, at the end of April. Gustav Stickley's magazine The Craftsman printed nearly two pages of rave reviews, translated from French, that Barnard received for the Pennsylvania State Capitol sculpture groups.
caption: The Prodigal Son (far left) in Barnard's studio outside Paris, c.1908
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