Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (November 2, 1850 – February 2, 1921) was a Danish-born American maritime artist known as the " Audubon of Steam Vessels".

Biography

Jacobsen was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark where he attended the Royal Academy of Design before heading across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived in the United States in August 1873. He settled in

West Hoboken, New Jersey West Hoboken was a municipality that existed in Hudson County, New Jersey, from 1861 to 1925. It merged with Union Hill to form Union City on June 1, 1925. The town is notable for being the first city in which Mallomars were sold.Barron, Jam ...

(now

Union City, New Jersey Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589,Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

and New York Harbor, its port filled with ships from America and around the world. Jacobsen got his start painting pictures of ships on safes, and as his reputation grew, he was asked to do portraits of ships by their owners, captains and crew members, with many of his works selling for five dollars. Jacobsen painted more than 6,000 portraits of sail and steam vessels, making him "the most prolific of marine artists".Maddry, Larry
"Maritime Artist Finally Gets Brush with Success"
''

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'', December 17, 1994. Accessed December 25, 2007. "That was understandable – the Danish-born American holds the distinction of being the most prolific of marine artists. Jacobsen documented thousands of sail and steam vessels that frequented New York Harbor between 1873 and 1919. It is believed that he painted more than 6,000 portraits." Many of his commissions came from sea captains, and Jacobsen was chosen both for the accuracy of his work and his low fee.Falkenstein, Michelle, et al
"Jersey Footlights"
''

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'', June 1, 2003. Accessed December 25, 2007. "He won many commissions from sea captains, and may have made as many as 6,000 paintings in his lifetime, historians believe. As a painter of vessels, ''Jacobsen was the most prolific, and the cheapest,'' said Bob Foster, director of the Hoboken Historical Museum, which has a show of his paintings. ''The captains really loved his work. It was not a romanticized version – it was the way the ship really looked.''"

Exhibitions and collections

Exhibitions of Jacobsen's work include a 1996 showing of 45 of his paintings at the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

. In 1995, the

Mariners' Museum The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. Designated as America’s ''National Maritime Museum'' by Congress, it is one of the largest maritime museums in North America. The Mariners' Museum Library, co ...

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held an exhibition that included 80 paintings by Jacobsen. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum published a volume by Harold S. Sniffen, the museum's curator emeritus, whose biography titled ''Antonio Jacobsen's Painted Ships on Painted Oceans'', includes some 100 color pictures of the artist's ship paintings. Independence Seaport Museum 151

The public rooms of

The Griswold Inn The Griswold Inn is located in Essex, Connecticut and is one of the oldest continuously run Inns in the United States. It was founded by three brothers in the late 18th century and named after the Griswold Family of the area, and it has been unde ...

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, the oldest continuously run tavern in the United States, features the largest privately held collection of Jacobsen's paintings. John McMullen, a naval architect and marine engineer (and former owner of the

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), had a collection that included 75 paintings by Jacobsen, the first two of which were found in the 1940s in the offices of the family ship repair business. On February 19, 2006, ''Fetching The Mark'', an unsigned painting of the racing yacht ''Dreadnought'' attributed to Jacobsen, was sold at auction for $281,000, more than triple the highest price previously paid for one of Jacobsen's works. The piece had been brought to an '' Antiques Road Show'' event in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

, and had originally been thought to be a work of Jacobsen's contemporary

James E. Buttersworth James Edward Buttersworth (1817–1894) was an English painter who specialized in maritime art and is considered among the foremost ship portraitists in the United States of the nineteenth century. His paintings are particularly known for thei ...

, until further research led to a conclusion that it was by Jacobsen.Fairbanks, Jonathan
"Marine Score"
''

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'', March 8, 2006.

Personal

Jacobsen and his wife Mary had three children; Carl, Helen and Alphonse.Hoboken Historical Museum, Online Collections Database;Antonio Jacobsen
.Retrieved May 16, 2018

Gallery

File:Portland (steamboat 1890) by Jacobsen.gif, Portland 1890 File:Antonio jacobsen a3182 the alaska wm.jpg, ''The Alaska''

Rehs Galleries Rehs Galleries is an art gallery on 57th Street, Manhattan, New York City. It displays works by 19th century European Barbizon, Realist, Naturalist and Academic works of art with some Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Mid-20th-century Amer ...

File:Antonio jacobsen a3433 the bunker hill wm.jpg, ''The SS Bunker Hill''

File:Antonio jacobsen ja1005 the city of new bedford wm.jpg, ''The City of New Bedford''

File:Antonio jacobsen e1241 new york yacht club race 1878 wm.jpg, ''New York Yacht Club Race, 1878''

File:Antonio jacobsen e1353 an american clipper wm.jpg, ''An American Clipper''

File:Antonio Jacobsen, oil on board of the Atlantic Transport Line’s Mohawk 1911.jpg, ''S.S. Mohawk'', dated 1911 File:In the trough of the seas.jpg, ''In the trough of the seas'', USS ''Adams'' in the collection at The

File:County of Edinburgh on the Beach.jpg, ''County of Edinburgh on the Beach'' in the collection at The

File:Samar in New York Harbor.jpg, ''Samar in New York Harbor'' in the collection at The

File:U.S. Navy Gunboat Adams.jpg, ''U.S. Navy

Gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

Adams'' in the collection at The

File:Pilot Schooner Fannie.jpg, ''Pilot Schooner Fannie'' in the collection at The

File:Steamship Chicago City.jpg, ''Steamship Chicago City'' in the collection at The

File:SS Columbia Full Sail.jpg, ''SS Columbia'' in a private gallery

References

External links

*
The Early Years
– Exhibition of works painted between 1877 and 1898.

– Exhibition of works painted between 1902 and 1916.
Antonio Jacobsen Bio
- Findlay Galleries
"USAT Sherman", oil on canvas, 1910-1915, by Antonio Jacobsen
sold at auction by GB Tate and Sons Fine Art, from the estate of Impressionist Emerson Everett Glass(1916-1987)..)
Works by Antonio Jacobsen
The Mariners' Museum
portrait of Antonio Jacobsenwife and children of Antonio Jacobsenportrait of Jacobsen in later years