Carl Barks: "Luck of the North" Lithograph

Carl Barks: Luck of the North. Signed Limited Edition Miniature Lithograph Print #544/595 (Another Rainbow, 2000). Based on Carl Barks' 1949 adventure story "Luck of the North" which appeared in Four Color #256, this lithograph features Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
The original oil painting is numbered #22-73. 40.5x51cm. Oil on masonite.

Luck of the North was offered as Another Rainbow's seventeenth miniature lithograph. It has been produced as a continuous-tone print with a twelve-color image area eight inches high by ten inches wide, beautifully reproduced on an 11" x 13" sheet of heavy, archival Opalesque Keramique paper by The Black Box of Chicago.

Signed by Carl Barks in the lower right corner. Comes with a matching numbered COA. In excellent condition.

The cover of FC 256 was used as a model found in the story Luck of the North (1949). The title is only comprehensive if the function of the picture as a cover for the famous Barks-story is known. Donald Duck is enveloped by guilt causing visions to appear before his very eyes while he is jeopardized by threat of capsize, freezing to death and encounter with a polar bear.
The transformation of the high formatted cover of FC 256 to the wide-formatted oil-painting leads to a panorama that enhances the threat of the Arctic Ocean. On three levels, appearing like a stage scenery, the Ducks and the polar bear are arranged in the foreground; behind them the equally dangerous icebergs and the eerie polar sky. Barks wanted to equip the background with aurora borealis and found this difficult, but he struck a picture of this phenomena in the National Geographics which inspired him.
Barks took the group of struggling characters from the cover painted almost 25 years ago using identical facial expressions and colors, but redefining the fur.