Mort Künstler, hailed as America's most prominent historical artist, dies at 97
Mort Künstler, an American artist known for his paintings of the Civil War, in his Cove Neck studio in 2014. His focus on the war began by happenstance. Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
Although Mort Künstler once told an interviewer that he would prefer to be remembered as a great athlete, he had to settle for being hailed as America’s most prominent historical artist.
Künstler, who died Sunday at Good Shepherd Hospice in Rockville Centre at age 97, was a member of four college teams. He even received an athletic scholarship to attend UCLA after three years at Brooklyn College but had to leave in his first semester when his father had a heart attack. After returning to Brooklyn, he studied art at Pratt Institute, where his backup career choice as an illustrator and fine artist took root.
Künstler would go on to paint about 4,000 magazine covers, movie ads and canvases for NASA, the U.S. Postal Service (a depiction of Black soldiers in the Indian Wars in 1994), institutions and private collectors. His paintings are in the permanent collection of more than 50 museums and his work has been featured in more than 20 books. He was the subject of an A&E documentary in 1993.
His specialty was images of the Civil War, and historians and art critics considered him the premier historical artist in the country — one known for his detailed research and accurate depictions of scenes from Colonial times through the Space Age. In 2006, M. Stephen Doherty, editor of American Artist magazine, wrote "Künstler is now known as America's foremost historical artist" and since the late 1970s "has been recognized as a distinguished fine artist."
"As a historian, I was always deeply impressed by Mort’s commitment to accuracy," Civil War historian Harold Holzer, head of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and co-author of "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory: The Civil War in Art," said on Sunday.
Künstler was born Aug. 28, 1927. Growing up in Brooklyn, he, like many kids, wanted to be a professional basketball player. The 1943 Abraham Lincoln High School graduate excelled in basketball, football, swimming, and track and field in high school and college.
But as a youngster Künstler was frail and injury-prone. "My parents recognized my talent at the age of 2½," he told Newsday in 2006. "I was sickly so my father, who ran a gym and was an amateur artist, bought me art supplies to keep me from being bored. My mother used to take me to children's art classes at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday mornings."
Künstler’s first professional assignment came while attending Pratt from 1947 to 1950. His football coach at Brooklyn College wrote a book and commissioned Künstler to illustrate it.
In his senior year at Pratt, Künstler introduced himself to Deborah Goldberg, who would become his wife of 73 years. "He came up to me and started talking to me, and I sort of ignored him because I was just starting classes [as a freshman] that day and I was a little nervous." But Künstler kept asking her out until Deborah, a textile design student who would later become an interior decorator, relented. They were married in 1951 and honeymooned in Mexico. They would return there a decade later to live for 18 months.
After graduating from Pratt, Künstler worked as an apprentice in an art studio for several months before setting out on his own as a freelance illustrator at age 20. After barely earning enough to survive the first year, he began doing covers for True, Argosy and other men's adventure magazines, including his first Civil War and other historical scenes. His work also appeared in Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post.
By doing 70-100 illustrations a year, Künstler was able to move his family from the Gravesend neighborhood in Brooklyn to Massapequa in the early 1950s. In 1963 they moved to Oyster Bay Cove and in 1978 to a Cove Neck Gold Coast mansion overlooking Oyster Bay.
When the family returned from Mexico, Künstler began his specialty niche of historical topics by doing a series of illustrations for National Geographic. But in the following decade, he also took on advertising projects, Newsweek covers, movie posters for "The Poseidon Adventure" in 1972, "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" in 1974 and other films, and even a Mad Magazine cover: a 1976 parody of "Jaws." By the end of the '70s, he decided to concentrate on fine art paintings of historical subjects that were sold in galleries for as much as $125,000.
The concentration on the Civil War that made him a celebrity in historical circles began by happenstance in 1988. Although he did the illustrations for the 1982 CBS TV miniseries "The Blue and the Gray," Künstler said, "I didn't know anything about the Civil War at the time." But he was inspired to do a painting for the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. When he visited the Pennsylvania town, he wandered into an art gallery, introduced himself to the owner and was offered a lucrative deal for turning his yet unpainted "The High Water Mark" into prints. The reproductions sold so well that he kept going. He developed such a loyal following that when he appeared at a gallery to sign his work, fans lined up for more than four hours to meet him.
When he painted a historical scene, Künstler explained to Newsday in 2006, "I want it to be the most authentic and best one ever done of an event." He would visit the site of any painting and take multiple photographs and interview local experts.
Knowing about Künstler’s obsession with accuracy, former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi in 2011 commissioned a new correct interpretation of Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1851 painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River during the American Revolution.
"Mort Künstler was an American treasure," Suozzi, now a congressman, said on Monday. "His paintings were beautiful, inspiring and historically accurate."
The artist was quick to support charitable efforts such as the American Red Cross and historical organizations. He provided so much ongoing fundraising help for the Timber Ridge School near Winchester, Virginia, which serves boys with learning and behavioral difficulties, that it named a new dormitory for the artist in 2002.
After suffering a stroke a dozen years ago, Künstler found painting to be too much work and reduced his once prodigious output significantly. His last painting, depicting Gen. Robert E. Lee on St. Simons Island in Georgia early in the Civil War, was completed in 2019.
"He was a very happy person," said his daughter Jane, an East Norwich resident who managed his business affairs. "He always said that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life."
Besides his wife and daughter Jane, Künstler is survived by his son David, of Riverdale, daughter Amy, of upstate Bath, son Thomas, of Glen Cove, and two grandchildren.
Künstler will be cremated. A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Gutterman’s Funeral Home, 8000 Jericho Tpke. in Woodbury.
Although Mort Künstler once told an interviewer that he would prefer to be remembered as a great athlete, he had to settle for being hailed as America’s most prominent historical artist.
Künstler, who died Sunday at Good Shepherd Hospice in Rockville Centre at age 97, was a member of four college teams. He even received an athletic scholarship to attend UCLA after three years at Brooklyn College but had to leave in his first semester when his father had a heart attack. After returning to Brooklyn, he studied art at Pratt Institute, where his backup career choice as an illustrator and fine artist took root.
Künstler would go on to paint about 4,000 magazine covers, movie ads and canvases for NASA, the U.S. Postal Service (a depiction of Black soldiers in the Indian Wars in 1994), institutions and private collectors. His paintings are in the permanent collection of more than 50 museums and his work has been featured in more than 20 books. He was the subject of an A&E documentary in 1993.
His specialty was images of the Civil War, and historians and art critics considered him the premier historical artist in the country — one known for his detailed research and accurate depictions of scenes from Colonial times through the Space Age. In 2006, M. Stephen Doherty, editor of American Artist magazine, wrote "Künstler is now known as America's foremost historical artist" and since the late 1970s "has been recognized as a distinguished fine artist."
"As a historian, I was always deeply impressed by Mort’s commitment to accuracy," Civil War historian Harold Holzer, head of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and co-author of "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory: The Civil War in Art," said on Sunday.
Künstler was born Aug. 28, 1927. Growing up in Brooklyn, he, like many kids, wanted to be a professional basketball player. The 1943 Abraham Lincoln High School graduate excelled in basketball, football, swimming, and track and field in high school and college.
But as a youngster Künstler was frail and injury-prone. "My parents recognized my talent at the age of 2½," he told Newsday in 2006. "I was sickly so my father, who ran a gym and was an amateur artist, bought me art supplies to keep me from being bored. My mother used to take me to children's art classes at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday mornings."
Illustrated sports book
Künstler’s first professional assignment came while attending Pratt from 1947 to 1950. His football coach at Brooklyn College wrote a book and commissioned Künstler to illustrate it.
In his senior year at Pratt, Künstler introduced himself to Deborah Goldberg, who would become his wife of 73 years. "He came up to me and started talking to me, and I sort of ignored him because I was just starting classes [as a freshman] that day and I was a little nervous." But Künstler kept asking her out until Deborah, a textile design student who would later become an interior decorator, relented. They were married in 1951 and honeymooned in Mexico. They would return there a decade later to live for 18 months.
After graduating from Pratt, Künstler worked as an apprentice in an art studio for several months before setting out on his own as a freelance illustrator at age 20. After barely earning enough to survive the first year, he began doing covers for True, Argosy and other men's adventure magazines, including his first Civil War and other historical scenes. His work also appeared in Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post.
A 2008 photo of the original work by Mort Künstler showing Teddy Roosevelt in a parade at Audrey Avenue and South Street, the artist's first painting of Oyster Bay. Credit: Newsday / Bill Davis
By doing 70-100 illustrations a year, Künstler was able to move his family from the Gravesend neighborhood in Brooklyn to Massapequa in the early 1950s. In 1963 they moved to Oyster Bay Cove and in 1978 to a Cove Neck Gold Coast mansion overlooking Oyster Bay.
When the family returned from Mexico, Künstler began his specialty niche of historical topics by doing a series of illustrations for National Geographic. But in the following decade, he also took on advertising projects, Newsweek covers, movie posters for "The Poseidon Adventure" in 1972, "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" in 1974 and other films, and even a Mad Magazine cover: a 1976 parody of "Jaws." By the end of the '70s, he decided to concentrate on fine art paintings of historical subjects that were sold in galleries for as much as $125,000.
The concentration on the Civil War that made him a celebrity in historical circles began by happenstance in 1988. Although he did the illustrations for the 1982 CBS TV miniseries "The Blue and the Gray," Künstler said, "I didn't know anything about the Civil War at the time." But he was inspired to do a painting for the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. When he visited the Pennsylvania town, he wandered into an art gallery, introduced himself to the owner and was offered a lucrative deal for turning his yet unpainted "The High Water Mark" into prints. The reproductions sold so well that he kept going. He developed such a loyal following that when he appeared at a gallery to sign his work, fans lined up for more than four hours to meet him.
When he painted a historical scene, Künstler explained to Newsday in 2006, "I want it to be the most authentic and best one ever done of an event." He would visit the site of any painting and take multiple photographs and interview local experts.
'American treasure'
Knowing about Künstler’s obsession with accuracy, former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi in 2011 commissioned a new correct interpretation of Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1851 painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River during the American Revolution.
"Mort Künstler was an American treasure," Suozzi, now a congressman, said on Monday. "His paintings were beautiful, inspiring and historically accurate."
The artist was quick to support charitable efforts such as the American Red Cross and historical organizations. He provided so much ongoing fundraising help for the Timber Ridge School near Winchester, Virginia, which serves boys with learning and behavioral difficulties, that it named a new dormitory for the artist in 2002.
After suffering a stroke a dozen years ago, Künstler found painting to be too much work and reduced his once prodigious output significantly. His last painting, depicting Gen. Robert E. Lee on St. Simons Island in Georgia early in the Civil War, was completed in 2019.
"He was a very happy person," said his daughter Jane, an East Norwich resident who managed his business affairs. "He always said that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life."
Besides his wife and daughter Jane, Künstler is survived by his son David, of Riverdale, daughter Amy, of upstate Bath, son Thomas, of Glen Cove, and two grandchildren.
Künstler will be cremated. A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Gutterman’s Funeral Home, 8000 Jericho Tpke. in Woodbury.
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'I have never been to New York' Jim Vennard, 61, an electrical engineer from Missouri, received a $250 ticket for passing a stopped school bus in Stony Brook, a place he said he has never visited. NewsdayTV's Shari Einhorn reports.
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