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By Donnie Johnston
The Free Lance-Star

	Artist Mort Künstler leans over an 1864 Union army map as he talks with the Musuem of Culpeper History's Zann Miner.

Although known nationwide for his historical paintings, Mort Künstler insists he is not a historian.

"I become an expert on 10 seconds in time," Künstler said in an interview yesterday. "I open a window on the past."

The 74-year-old painter says he combines historical facts and a vivid imagination to try to come up with a unique moment in what usually a well-known story.

"I try to do things no one else has done," he said.

Künstler is in Culpeper this weekend to promote his latest Civil War painting, "Before the Ball," which depicts a scene that may have occurred on the evening on June 4, 1863, just prior to a dance hosted by Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart.

This work, set on West Davis Street looking east, shows a finely dressed lady arriving for the ball while Southern officers and townspeople await the dance with great anticipation.

Culpeper's old courthouse, the Civil War version of the A.P. Hill Boyhood Home and the steeple of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church are featured prominently in the background.

"Before the Ball" is a prequel to Künstler's "Candlelight and Roses," a 1998 painting that is a scene from the dance itself. The original of that work is now owned by Larry Silver of the Silver Cos., Künstler said.

Mort Künstler is in Culpeper this weekend, signing copies of "Before the Ball." The work depicts the festive lead-in to an 1863 dance.

The Oyster Bay, N.Y., artist will be signing prints of "Before the Ball" today from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at The Depot on Commerce Street. This signing is part of a Culpeper Remembrance Days weekend that includes activities at the Graffiti House in Brandy Station and tours at the Cedar Mountain battlefield.

Last night. Patrick Falci, who was in the movie "Gods and Generals," portrayed Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill during a sold-out fund-raising dinner sponsored by the Friends of the Cedar Mountain Battlefield.

Yesterday at noon, Falci and Künstler took part in a ceremony on the courthouse lawn that included an unveiling of a historical marker placed on the side of the A.P. Hill Boyhood Home. At the event, Künstler formally presented a framed copy of his new painting to Culpeper Mayor Pranas Rimeikis.

Skip Price, owner of Village Frameworks and Gallery, said yesterday that more than 150 of the 200 limited-edition prints allotted to the Culpeper art dealer have already been sold at $225 each. Künstler will be autographing those prints today.

"Before the Ball" is the third Culpeper scene Künstler has painted.

"Very early in my [Civil War] career, I painted 'The Grand Review,' a very complicated picture [set at Brandy Station]," Künstler said.

In researching the history of this celebrated review that occurred just days before Gen. Robert E. Lee's army began its trek toward Gettysburg, Künstler said he was struck by the final line of an account of that incident:

"At the end of the day, they all went to Culpeper for a ball," it read.

That single sentence led the artist to paint "Candlelight and Roses" and "Before the Ball."

While visiting Culpeper before painting "Candlelight and Roses," Künstler said, he was taken with the courthouse and felt a strong desire to paint it. He discovered, however, that the present-day courthouse was not built until after the Civil War and would not work in a period painting.

Then he found two old pictures of the former courthouse on the corner of Main and David streets (torn down in 1873) and decided to use that structure as an anchor for his work.

Künstler said he was thrilled when Silver purchased "Candlelight and Roses."

"If it is bought by someone in that community [where the painting is set] then it is very special to me, " he said, noting that Silver considers Culpeper part of the company's business community.

Silver, who owns two others of Künstler's originals - "Angel of Marye's Heights" and "Changing of the Pickets" - has commissions the artist to produce "a major work" as part of the company's Celebrate Virginia development, Künstler said. He hopes to have that painting completed by August.

A self-described "sickly child who was born in South Brooklyn," Künstler said he began producing art before the age of 3.

By the time he was 11, he was turning newspaper photographs of his Brooklyn Dodger heroes - including Leo Durocher and Pee Wee Reese - into paintings he was able to get autographed by the men depicted.

"Those pictures - which I still have - are worth a lot now, not because I drew them, but because of who signed them" he said.

Künstler worked as a national magazine illustrator in the Norman Rockwell era. In the 1970s and '80s, he did preview art for such movies as "The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three" and "The Poseidon Adventure."

In 1981, CBS Television commissioned him to do paintings for its miniseries "The Blue and the Gray." He then turned his attention to painting epic events in American history, including the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush, Custer's Last Stand and The Alamo.

In 1988, he painted a scene in connection with the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, and the success of that work turned his full focus to Civil War art.

His dream, he said, is one no artist is likely to accomplish.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to paint a picture for every day of the Civil War?" he asks.

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