The Prodigal Son: Deuxième Tableau
1895
Henri Rivière's "The Prodigal Son: Deuxième Tableau" is a color lithograph from a series of 15 prints that illustrate the poetry and music of Georges Fragerolle, bound together as a unified artistic and literary work. The print demonstrates Rivière's mastery of color lithography technique, employing his characteristic refined palette and decorative sensibility to visualize the biblical narrative. This collaborative project between artist, poet, and composer represents a significant example of fin de siècle multimedia integration, where visual art, literature, and music were designed to work in concert.
- Medium
- 15 color lithographs in a bound volume illustrating the poetry and music of Georges Fragerolle: color lithograph
- Location
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Spotted works by Henri Rivière
Artists in conversation
Théophile Steinlen
Swiss-French · b. 1859
Steinlen worked extensively with color lithography in fin de siècle Paris, producing narrative sequential prints with a similarly dramatic and melancholic mood, decorative flatness, and strong silhouetted forms rooted in Art Nouveau sensibility.
Katsushika Hokusai
Japanese · b. 1760
Hokusai's woodblock print series share the refined flat color palette, sequential storytelling format, and theatrical silhouette aesthetic that deeply influenced Rivière, who consciously adopted Japonisme techniques throughout his lithographic work.
Eugène Grasset
Swiss-French · b. 1845
Grasset was a central figure in French Art Nouveau printmaking who similarly combined color lithography with literary and decorative illustration, creating morally resonant narrative imagery with ornamental flat color fields and theatrical compositional staging.
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