THE STORY

FC0256 - December 1949

Synopsis: Donald gets tired of Gladstone's never-ending luck so he sends him up north with a fake treasure map. But Donald's conscience will not let him alone...
Comments: The front cover scene does not depict any specific part of the story inside the issue as the kayaking Ducks and the polar bear never meet in this fashion. Furthermore, it is a bit puzzling to witness the heavy bear obviously floating on top of the waves, but as a dramatic effect the basic idea is brilliant.

THE PAINTING

22-73 Luck of the North

The oil painting was made as the 22nd published duck painting in 1973. As usual Barks painted on Masonite and the size is 16x20" (410x510mms). He followed the front cover image fairly closely keeping in mind that he had the opportunity of rendering the painting with far more detail than he had been able to in the comic book.

Although Barks always found it difficult to paint unruly waves he gave it a go: I find water very difficult to paint. It's hard work, but I worked at this until I got it to look halfway authentic.
Also Barks changed the front cover's day scene to a night scene in order to get the opportunity to paint the northern lights: That's where I had my trouble, in that northern lights effect at the top. I found pictures of northern lights in some Geographics and I kind of stole some.
Normally, Barks did not shy from elements that could prove difficult: It may be that I had the sense to do that once in a while, but I doubt it. I generally just plunged in on an idea whether I was going to have trouble or not. I'd start out with a simple idea and keep on elaborating on it, until I had a real complex thing going.

THE SKETCHES

This is one of the very few raw, preliminary sketches that has survived (and the rightmost part is even missing!). The size is 16x19" (410x480mms), and it was sold from Barks' Estate at 1,525 dollars.
Barks usually made his sketches in three stages: He sketched parts of the motif, he then joined them together, and he finally traced the then finished sketch to the Masonite board for painting.

Several times Barks made similar editions of the same motif, and this was also his intention with the polar painting. In 1974 he drew this unfinished lead pencil sketch on Masonite in the size 10x12" (250x310mms) and called it Peril of the Polar Seas.
In comparison with the published painting you can see that the northern lights have been slightly altered and the rightmost iceberg is crumbling, but the centerpiece with the Ducks, the kayak, and the polar bear remains the same. The painting was never finished.

THE FOLLOWERS

Especially after Barks' death in 2001 several talented artists emerged with their versions of some of Barks' paintings. Above you are presented to the Italian artist Gilberto 'Gil' Ugolini's rendering of the polar painting. You can see more of Gil's work HERE. Pay special attention to the fact that his works are not signed.

Copying the works of other painting artists can be an interesting and relatively innocent pastime provided that you are honest about it. Above you are presented to a swindle! A few things give the game away: Some of the colours are wrong, the top of the waves are wrong, and Barks' signature is wrong! All in all a fake...

THE MERCHANDISE

In the last part of his golden years Barks had numerous lithographs of his duck paintings made, in order to give as many of his fans as possible a chance to have at least a print of his work hanging at their walls instead of 'the real deal'.
The lithographs were made in diverse editions in limited numbers and with great attention to detail. They were all rendered in the same sizes as the initial paintings except for 18 lithographs that were made as a miniature series. One of these was Luck of the North (#17 in the series) that was printed in a series of 595.
The paper used was Opalesque Keramique, the printing technique was a continuous-tone 12 colours rendering, and the image area is 10x8" (250x210mms).

During his lithograph period Barks also took up working with figurines (see more HERE). Most were made in England and produced from fine bone china, and in general they were based on classical scenes from the stories.
But 5 (they are A Christmas Trimming (AKA Christmas Composition), Far Out and No Safari, Flubbity Dubbity Duffer, Luck of the North, and Time Out for Fun) never got past the prototype stage, and they are consequently fairly unknown. They were supposed to end up as large figurines in very limited quantities, but realizing that the sales price would be around 20,000 dollars each, the projects were scrapped.
The figurine prototype measures 15½x17" (390x430mms), and bears Barks' autograph in gold ink at the front.

THE SALE

In the beginning of 1973 Barks and his painting sales manager, Russ Cochran, had lengthy discussions regarding future prices. Barks was satisfied with the way things were, but Cochran pushed him by correctly arguing that the fans would gladly pay much more. In the end they decided to 'only' double most of the prices for new purchasers.

In November Barks had a number of newly finished paintings consigned to Cochran for a so-called bidding sale in his Graphic Gallery. The minimum bid price was fixed by Barks at 500 dollars each, and two weeks later the polar painting was sold at 1,050 dollars minus Cochran's 10% commission. Subsequently, the net price for Barks was 945 dollars.