We the People

This is Mort Künstler limited edition print - We the People 1787.

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
Paper Prints
Reproduction technique: Fine offset lithography on neutral pH archival quality paper using the finest fade-resistant inks.
Each print is numbered and signed by the artist and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.

Image Size: 18” x 25” • Overall Size: 22½” x 29”
Signed & Numbered • Edition Size: 2000
Signed Artist’s Proof • Edition Size: 50

Painted in 1986, Printed in 1987.

In commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution of the United States and in tribute to the beneficence of Benjamin Franklin to the printing industry, Mort Künstler was commissioned in 1987 to depict the scene in history when Franklin and James Madison examined the Constitution's first press run.

We, the People...1787 was released as a limited edition print by the PICA Foundation (The Printing Industry of the Carolinas) in 1987, as the year also marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of PICA. This beautifully detailed piece of art illustrates, through extensive research by Mort Künstler, the print shop, the tools, and the type of press utilized in this period. Special attention was also taken to the costuming and expressions in the portraits of Franklin and Madison.

“That constitution is now the oldest written constitution in history, and is also the most original, the most innovative and, as it turned out, the most farsighted document of its kind.” ... Henry Steele Commanger


Historical Information
Other governments had called themselves republics, but they had no safeguarding constitution like that of the United States. Absent from this document were the self-centeredness of man, the arrogance, the evil, the excess of unrestrained democracy, the tyranny of unlimited political power. No king. No emperor. No mob rule. A government of checks and balances. A government, as one of the land’s greatest leaders later described it, of the people, by the people, and for the people.