Mort Künstler

Morton Künstler (August 28, 1927 – February 2, 2025) was an American artist known for his illustrative paintings of historical events, especially of the American Civil War. He was a child prodigy, who, with encouragement from his parents, became a skilled artist by the time he was twelve. He was considered the "best-known and most respected historical artist in the country."

Early years and education Künstler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927 and grew up there during the Great Depression. His parents had Polish and Austrian roots and were of Jewish heritage. they encouraged him to practice and enrolled him in Saturday classes at the Brooklyn Museum.

His talent in art was further supported when he was at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, inspired by his art teacher, Leon Friend. After graduating high school he enrolled at Brooklyn College to study art, although his main focus became athletics. He excelled in several sports. they married soon after he graduated.

Early jobs quote=I never realized that when I was a student. But there were no real jobs except in advertising as sketch artists or whatever. They didn’t do finished art. I think I’m the only one who eventually did very well as a professional illustrator. It was not a good time to be going into the field. — Mort Kunstler He continued doing those throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, although to make ends meet he had to live with his parents, who supported him during this early period: “I worked 12 hour days, 15 hour days, sometimes seven days a week. Almost always six days a week, from nine o’clock in the morning to ten or eleven at night.” whose family was friends with his. “I used to call him Uncle George and I chose him as my mentor.”

1950s–1960s

Künstler began working full-time as a freelance artist, illustrating magazine covers and paperback fiction adventure books, typically oriented toward men, such as Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, and Stag. Künstler credited the experience gained from illustrating men’s adventure magazines in the 1950s and 1960s with teaching him how to compose and tell a story, which he said prepared him for his later work. He also did the box covers for Aurora models.

He illustrated a number of movie posters for adventure films, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). By the early 1970s, his paintings were attracting the attention of serious art collectors, which led him to begin retaining the reproduction rights to his original paintings. In 1975 he submitted a number of paintings to galleries, all of which sold, to his surprise. In 1977 his military art drew attention from even more important galleries, which made him widely recognized as an accurate historical artist.

The first major gallery to give him a one-man show was the prestigious Hammer Galleries in New York City. He would have 13 additional one-man shows at the gallery in subsequent years, while his work was also being exhibited in museums nationwide. Armand Hammer, founder of Hammer Galleries, supported, encouraged and promoted Künstler's work, helping him become recognized as one of America's leading historical artists.

1980–2025 In 1982, after getting a commission from CBS-TV to do a painting for the 3-part mini-series, The Blue and the Gray (televised November 1982,) Künstler's interest turned towards the American Civil War. They included images of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.

quote=Mort Künstler is the foremost Civil War artist of our time -- if not of all time. To study his paintings is to simply see history alive. — James I. Robertson, Jr., Civil War scholar This obsession to detail, he said, came from his experience illustrating men's magazines and his work for National Geographic. In preparation for his 1992 painting, “The Gunner and the Colonel,” for instance, he researched the exact uniforms the soldiers wore and even the weather on that day, to learn which way the wind was blowing so the flags were unfurled in the right direction. With each new painting, Künstler said he took on the role of a historian:

His battle of Gettysburg painting, titled “High Water Mark,” was unveiled at the Gettysburg Battlefield Museum on the 125th anniversary of that climactic confrontation.

With collections of his work published as limited edition prints and sold nationwide. Historians including James M. McPherson said:

Künstler took a month or two to complete a painting, with many selling for over $100,000. Limited edition prints often sell out quickly. The American Print Gallery's limited edition of 4,150 of Moonlight and Magnolias was sold out in three weeks after publication.

Washington Crossing Some of his paintings have revised opinions of many about the accuracy of earlier paintings by others. One of Kunstler's more recent paintings has, according to recent historians, corrected some obvious inaccuracies of one America's most famous, the 1851 painting by Emmanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, depicting Washington's 1776 surprise attack on the German soldiers at Trenton who were fighting for the British.

Historian and author David Hackett Fischer said that the painting by Künstler was “quite accurate...He got more right about the crossing than any other image,” which included more than 200 previous paintings depicting that event. Although the new image is about 4 feet wide and 3 feet high, compared to Leutze's, which is about 21 feet wide and 12 feet high, Künstler says it is “the most important painting I've ever done." through the Korean and Vietnam wars, with many paintings of World War II. He painted historical events such as the Oklahoma Land Rush and he tried to humanize emotional settings by paintings of new immigrants at Ellis Island Some experts feel that it was Künstler's ability to humanize such moments which distinguished his works from most other historical artists. His paintings recorded its manufacture, launching and landing. An updated edition of The American Spirit was published in 1994.

Awards and honors

1999, Virginia “Mort Künstler Day.” 2001, Henry Timrod Southern Culture Award. 2002, six-month, sole-artist exhibition at the new National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 2003, Jefferson Davis Southern Heritage Award, by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars. 2003, A residence hall at Timber Ridge School for special students in Winchester, Virginia, was named Mort Künstler Hall, because of his art assistance. 2004, Named an official artist for the H. L. Hunley, a submarine of the Confederate States of America, at which time he unveiled a new painting of the vessel during ceremonies in Charleston, South Carolina