DUCKS FAMILY - BLUE (1990's)

These are prep sketches done most probably in the first half of the 90's for one of the latest oil painting that were produced by Barks. Title of the painting is "The Old Castle Secret", and it should be presently in the hands of some private collector, who got it in 1996. It was, according to the records I found on the net, the penultimate oil done by Barks.

It is obviously inspired to the most famous 1947-1948 story, very well known as one of the best ducks stories, not to mention their first "treasure hunt" tale, and, last but not least, only the second appearence of Uncle Scrooge. Incidentally, it was even one of he first stories by Barks I have ever read, and one of my childhood favorites (I remeber the story to be really, really scary, with the skeleton and everything...).

The black sketch looks like an earlier prep stage of the painting, while the blue one have virtually the same composition of the finished work.