Mort Kunstler Handsigned & Numbered Limited Edition Print:"So Close to the Enemy"

Artist: Mort Kunstler
Title: So Close to the Enemy
Size: Image Size: 19" x 26" Overall Size: 24" x 30"
Edition:Artist Hand Signed and Numbered Limited Edition to 750 - Giclee on Canvas to 100
Frame: Fine Art Print on Paper (As Shown) and Canvas Giclee (select option above)
About the Art: It was a daring reconnaissance - and an immeasurable risk. On December 12, 1862, as the massive Northern Army of the Potomac under General Ambrose E. Burnside prepared to assault the Southern lines at Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee concluded that he needed additional reconnaissance of the enemy - and decided to do it himself. As a young officer in the Mexican War, Lee had distinguished himself with a foray behind enemy lines, and he apparently had no qualms about reconnoitering close to the Union position this time. Accompanied by his "right arm" - General Stonewall Jackson - and Major Johann Heros von Borcke, Lee moved cautiously through the snow toward Northern lines.

Closer and closer, the high-ranking observers moved - until they were within approximately four-hundred yards of the Federal advance line. Despite the danger, Lee studied the enemy in front of him until he could tarry no more. The next day, the giant Northern army he had observed so carefully would come forward in an attempt to destroy Lee's army. They held numerical superiority - Lee was assured of that; but he was also confident of his superior defensive position and of the ability of his troops: the Army of Northern Virginia. The battle that followed was one of the bloodiest of the war - and one of the greatest disasters to befall the Union army. So one-sided were the Northern losses, that Lee - watching wave after wave of courageous Federal troops crushed and repelled - remarked to those around him: "It is good that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."

The unknown irony of the battle was that the Confederate commander, camouflaged in the snow-covered landscape, conducted a personal reconnaissance within easy range of the Union artillery. Lee, Jackson and von Borcke, were "so close to the enemy," as von Borcke noted - that the outcome of the battle could have been changed by a single vigilant Northern observer. Undiscovered in his bold foray, Lee directed one of his most significant victories of the war.

Mort Künstler's Comments

For more than ten years, I've wanted to paint this picture. In 1995, I did a sketch of this painting, showing General Robert E. Lee, General Stonewall Jackson and Major Heros von Borcke conducting a reconnaissance of the Northern army in the snow during the 1862 Fredericksburg Campaign. The painting depicts a scene at Fredericksburg recorded by historians Douglas Southall Freeman and James I. Robertson, Jr. Finally - I've been able to paint this fascinating scene!

The historians' account allowed me to paint a snow scene, which I love to do - and during daylight, which is a rarity for me. I always want to surprise and delight the viewer with my paintings - and this was a unique opportunity. Most of my snow scenes are at night and thus are dark canvases. Lee's December 12th foray occurred at about midday. The morning mist had cleared and this enabled me to paint bright sunlight.

I also decided at this time to feature more of the snowy landscape and camouflage the three officers hiding in the shadows of the woods. I have used the warmer tones of the three figures to contrast with the cool colors of the snow and trees, which leads the eye to the trio. Lee becomes the central figure and focus of attention by designing the branches to point toward him. As one is drawn into the painting, you finally see the mounted escorts in the background. Major von Borcke confessed extreme nervousness that the three officers were "so close to the enemy, who surely little suspected that the two greatest heroes of the war were so nearly in their clutches."

He's the premier historical artist in America - and now he focuses mainly on the American Civil War. When Mort Künstler began his current emphasis on Civil War art in the early 1980s, he had already accomplished more than a half-dozen artists could hope to accomplish in a collective lifetime. From portraits of prehistoric American life to the odyssey of the space shuttle, Mort Künstler had painted America's story - and was already renowned as "the premier historical artist in America." When he placed his focus on Civil War art, Mr. Künstler quickly established himself as the country's most-collected Civil War artist, and earned unprecedented acclaim within the genre of Civil War art.

"Mort Künstler is the foremost Civil War artist of our time -- if not of all time," says Dr. James I. Robertson Jr., the dean of Civil War historians and the author of the celebrated biography, Stonewall Jackson. "To study his paintings," says Robertson, "is to simply see history alive." Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson concurs. "Of all the artists working in the Civil War field," he observes, "none captures the human element, the aura of leadership, the sense of being there and sharing in the drama, quite like Mort Künstler. He has that enviable talent of being able to re-create history on canvas and to translate events into art."
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