Old Photograph Prodigal Son Dollar Park Falkirk Scotland

Old photograph of the Prodigal Son statue in Dollar Park, Falkirk, Scotland. The statue of the Prodigal Son, which stands 1.7 metres high on its base, was executed by the Lanark sculptor Robert Forrest. It shows a caped young man leaning on a truncated tree, with a pig between his feet. It was probably acquired in 1854 at the sale of the artist’s work following his death two years before. Forrest was born at Briarsneuk Lanarkshire on the 27th November 1789, the son of Robert Forrest, a tailor and Mary Golder. He may have begun life as a shepherd but around 1805 he was apprenticed to a Mr. Selkirk as a stonemason. He was an influential figure and significantly increased the popularity of sculpture in nineteenth century Scotland. His work forms a prominent if largely ignored feature of the townscape in Edinburgh, Falkirk Haddington and Glasgow and there may be surviving but unidentified works in England. He died on the 28th December 1852 and was interred in the Warriston cemetery on the 3rd January 1853. Ironically, for a man who left so many monuments in stone, his grave is unmarked.



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