thesaloonsceneshumans

Barks used human subjects in three realistic western paintings: I just wanted to paint them - on a whim. The thing I noted in so many of the western paintings that I saw in 'Southwestern Art' and some of those other magazines, was that the cowboys were always under miserable conditions; always out in the cold, chasing the cattle around or branding them, or burying one of their comrades out on the prairie in the blowing snow. So I painted these light, happy pictures, just people in saloons having fun.

1/82 WELL-ARMED STRANGER

Sketch

Painting

Barks put a tremendous amount of research into making the background and characters realistic, and he drew numerous detailed sketches to get all the painting's ingredients right. Above is one of the many finished sketches. If you look closely you will find a great number of both minor and major changes compared to the final painting.
Notice how Barks has built up tension in the scene by showing all the many characters' faces in different degrees of 'awareness', but the central figure, the stranger, is faceless thus adding to the guests' general uncertainness. The spectator instantly gets flashbacks to the numerous Wild West films, in which the hero enters a saloon and everyone goes quiet. Barks later offered his - deliberately - much more down-to-earth explanation: This one guy is coming in with these big guns on him, but he hasn't done anything yet. He may just want a glass of milk for all we know...

2/82 WORTH A WHOLE MONTH'S WAGES

Body Sketch				Dress Sketch

Last Sketch

Final Painting

Immediately after finishing his first saloon painting with humans Barks started work on the next one. The interior and the figures are basically similar but the atmosphere is totally different; all tension is gone and the scene is a joyous one entirely. As usual, Barks made numerous sketches of details of which two character roughs are shown. In the first one Barks attempted to get the movements right which is why he did not bother to dress the woman and in the second one he focused on the couple's garments. The last sketch shows all the minute details coming together in the final composition, but, once again, you will notice several last-minute alterations when compared with the finished painting.
In February 1982 Barks' wife Garé wrote a letter to his daughter Dorothy telling her of her husband's meticulous work with the painting. In it she wrote: ...Carl is just finishing up a big western bar room scene that he’s been sweating over for several months. He’s just put in a row of mugs or steins up over the bar...

(UNFINISHED)

The last saloon painting was never finished, but Barks had reached the final stages when he abandoned the project. The ingredients all seem to be in place but the 'polished' colour layers have not yet been applied. Furthermore, the lady's dress is not quite finished either.
It is not known why Barks stopped working on the painting. It can be speculated that he simply lacked the necessary time as he had just been commissioned to make another batch of his Disney ducks, or that on second thought he found the motif to be a little bland. We shall never know...