Barks and Bray posing in Barks' home in Goleta, California (see more HERE). He would later incorporate Bray in one of his most famous paintings July 4th in Duckburg (see more HERE).

It is well known that Barks in 1971 was given an unprecedented, royalty-free permission from George Sherman at Disney's to paint the ducks. The initial trigger person was a dedicated fan from California, Glenn Bray, who knew Barks as The Good Artist of comic book stories, and the two developed a lifelong friendship. Here are a few relevant excerpts of Barks' correspondence to Bray from the crucial time:

December 10, 1970: ...back in the 40s and 50s nobody could have convinced me that there would ever be anybody who would collect comic books for any reason (and for the literary or nostalgic value least of all)...
...I do have a few original Scrooges at $100 a page. When I retired in 1966 the Western editor used his weight to get me some pages from the scrap bin at the printery. I have sold a few pages to fans the last couple of years for $25 a page, but as it became evident that my pages are most likely the only ones in existence I stopped selling and did some Scroogian calculating...

From now on Bray tried to persuade Barks to start painting the ducks instead, and Barks followed up on his request:

June 18, 1971: ...Still no definite word from Disney's ... However, George Sherman called the other evening to say that the Disney legal staff would write me soon and tell me how to make the work conform to their rules, and also the time period in which I could use the privilege...

July 1, 1971: ...Still haven't received any letter from the Disney legal dept...

July 26, 1971: ...I finally got permission from Disney's to do paintings...
...the Disney attorney gave me a royalty-free license to do oil paintings of 'fine art' quality for a price of not less than $25.00 each. I can sign my name as the artist, and letter 'c Walt Disney Productions' on the front of the painting. The license runs to the end of this year and will be canceled if anyone else asks for similar permission...
...I am laboring on the Uncle S. #1 and two versions of 'Bullet Valley'. With a script to write and other interruptions I get in less than 5 hours a day at painting...

Thomas Andrae (excerpt from an article written especially for this website in 2004): I was also fortunate enough to see Carl's first painting when Glenn Bray brought it to the Bay Area to show us. It was mind boggling. The ducks looked more three dimensional than any cover painting I had ever seen of them, and the sailboat scene was happy and care free - and a joy to behold. It was so bright and sunny that it made me happy just looking at it.

Letter from June 17, 1971, to Donald Ault: ...the latest news came from George Sherman, who called last night and said the Disney lawyers will send me a letter in a few days giving me limited (time wise) permission to do paintings of Disney subjects such as bursting money dams, covers, etc. ... now it appears I can go ahead...

Mike Barrier (excerpt from an article published in 1998): The Barkses were far from poverty-stricken before the duck paintings came along. When Glenn Bray commissioned the first of those paintings, they were living in a lovely, sunny home in Goleta, near Santa Barbara. No doubt the paintings and the lithographs made from them contributed marginally to the Barkses’ comfort and security, but at a terrible cost to Carl’s peace of mind in his last years. The paintings, the lithographs, the statuettes - all of them were a terrible mistake. How much better if he had never painted a duck.

Gottfried Helnwein (excerpt from an interview conducted in 1992): ...When you had retired, you began to paint in oil. But you were not allowed to paint your ducks, since the copyright belonged to Disney, didn't it?
Barks: Yes, for five years I painted and drew little landscapes and sold them at exhibitions. Those were meager years, I didn't earn much. I think it was in 1971, when someone asked me if I could paint him a picture of the cover with the little old sailboat from the year 1949. Well, I said these ducks belong to Disney and I would have to ask permission. But I thought it would be a pleasant way to earn a few dollars, because I had no luck with my other pictures. So I wrote to George Sherman, who at that point managed the Publications Department, and he simply said: Of course - go to it! He added that the pictures would have to be good enough, so as not to cause the Disney Studios any embarrassment.

WDCS108 - September 1949

13-71 A Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By

This is the painting (size 18x14" (460x360mms)) that started Barks' next career. It was the first of 12 consecutive works that he made on canvas. As you can see from the original front cover to the left Barks quite meticulously 'copied' the motif except that he added flocks of gulls and some more detailed waves. All of his life Barks lived inland, but he often dreamt about the ocean and portraying its unruly waves, a fact that can be seen in the numerous, accurate panels of waves in his sea-related stories.

One of Barks' biggest problems was how to price his paintings. At the time he certainly did not consider himself a painting artist of much substance, but he manned up to ask Glenn Bray for 150 dollars, which was a very handsome sum at the time. Bray gladly agreed, and for a long time Barks sold his duck paintings at the same price. And the customers were lining up...

The somewhat puzzling title of the painting was in fact borrowed from a 1902 song about a sailor who longed to get out on the ocean (it was by no means the only time he borrowed texts from songs and poems as you will see later). The first two lines read:
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

Barks painted all the remaining sailboat paintings on Masonite. Thanks to the smooth surface of the board Barks was now able to produce significantly more and better details as well as make general improvements.

The format change made room for added background, in this case the rugged cliffs of the South Seas islands of Bora Bora, northwest of Tahiti.

Barks used a more cartoonish style for this painting, in which the waves seem friendlier and even the fish looks happier.

Barks also introduced the ducks'  skin (i.e. feathers) in more greyish tones unlike the more fleshlike colours he used before.

Now Barks felt more secure about his abilities (not to mention the demand for his paintings!), so his price went up in the following years. This one was sold at 450 dollars.

Interestingly, Barks borrowed the title from the same song he had referred to in his first sailboat painting. The song's title is Sea-Fever (but Barks disposed of the hyphen).

Again, Barks resorted to use a text from a song as the title for his painting. This time he chose a 1880 children's song titled Sailing, Sailing, in which the first line reads:
Sailing, Sailing, Over the Bounding Main.
The song tells about how sailors return home from the vast ocean.

From now on the paintings became so expensive that payments were typically divided into three equal part-payments. The full price for this painting was 15,000 dollars. It was resold in December 2003 at 93,666 dollars.

The work was made as part of an ongoing series of lithographs (this painting was in fact the first independently licensed object), that would make it possible for many buyers to enjoy Barks' work. Several conditions applied to Barks' work on these new paintings, one of which was that Uncle Scrooge was to appear. Notice there are many small and large differences as opposed to all the foregoing sailboat paintings.

The Spanish Main was the stretch of coastline in the Americas controlled by Spain in the 16th through the 18th centuries. It went along the northern coast of South America, across Central America along the Caribbean, and up into the lower part of North America. This region became a popular spot for pirates and privateers who wanted to take advantage of Spain's heavily laden treasure ships.

In 1996/1997 Barks made a suite of no less than 80 crayon pastels (see more HERE), one of which was indeed yet another sailboat creation. This time he added cliffs with a lighthouse on top.

Again, Barks resorted to a poem when titling his work. This time it was author Robert Louis Stevenson's verse Requiem, that ends:
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Stevenson had made the short poem as an epitaph to himself, and it is indeed inscribed on his tomb on the paradise island of Samoa, where he lived his last years. However, the piece is misquoted in many places, including his tomb reading: Home is the sailor, home from the sea. Barks made the same mistake...