New Release: “Duty, Honor, and Tears” by Mort Kunstler – Yep, I’ve definitely seen this before. Click here, here, here, here, and here.
Civil War Art
It’s difficult to deny that the image of women in the work of contemporary Civil War artists tells us much more about the individual artist than the reality of women’s lives or the way those lives were transformed during the Civil War. I pick on Mort Kunstler quite a bit, but his characters beg for [...]
A historian friend of mine recently decided that he needs to add another 22 ft of shelf space to his library. To achieve this he decided to unload some back issues of the old Civil War magazine and asked if I was interested. Of course, I jumped at the offer and within a short period [...]
Legend of John Brown (1978)
And why are there no slaves working in the garden? “Never Against Virginia” by John Paul Strain
Check out the excellent video that Caitlin, from Vast Public Indifference, put together in response to one of my recent posts on Civil War art. Caitlin’s commentary begins around 2:10. The video is here, but I encourage you to read her full post, which includes another video. Does anyone really believe that the images in [...]
I’m sure this scene titled “Tender is the Heart” by Mort Kunstler has some basis in fact, but why would you want to paint it? Add Thomas Forehand’s The Softer Side of Robert E. Lee and you’ll be crying your eyes out for the foreseeable future.
Last night I attended a talk by Gary Gallagher at the Miller Center here in Charlottesville. His topic was pulled from a larger project on perceptions of the Civil War in popular culture, which should be completed over the summer. This talk specifically addressed the continued popularity and presence of Lost Cause themes in prints [...]
