Lee (The Enemy is There)

This is Mort Künstler limited edition print - Lee (The Enemy is There).

Paper Artist's Proof Image Size: 13" x 16 1/2" Overall Size: 17" x 21" Edition Size : 100

Mort Künstler’s Comments:
In 1991 I received a phone call from Ron Maxwell, the director-screenwriter of the now famous feature film Gettysburg, asking if we could get together. We met at Hammer Galleries in New York to discuss the possibility of my doing paintings for a book that would be a companion piece to the movie. At that time it was being planned as a television mini-series for ABC. It was impossible for me since I already had a commitment to finish Images of the Civil War, a book that was being published on my works by Gramercy for release in the fall of 1992. We were both unhappy with the unfortunate timing.

Luckily for me, the filming was delayed a year. Ted Turner bought the film rights and that changed everything. I finished my Images of the Civil War book in the spring of 1992. Subsequently, I was contacted by the publishing arm of the Turner organization, Turner Publishing, and asked if I could complete enough pictures to do a book of the movie. Utilizing existing paintings I had done on the Battle of Gettysburg as a base, I agreed to the project.

There are four leading characters in The Killer Angels, the novel on which the movie was based: Lee and Longsreet for the Confederates, and Buford and Chamberlain for the Union. I wanted a portrait of each individual, as well as a painting of that person in a specific situation as they are introduced to the reader.

That is how the painting Lee came about.