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Antonio Jacobsen

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Artist's Biography

Antonio Jacobsen received training in art at the Royal Academy Copenhagen before emigrating to New York City in 1871. He became a successful painter of ship portraits, occasionally tackling more ambitious subjects like America’s Cup races. In 1879, he moved from Manhattan to Hoboken, New Jersey, where he spent the remainder of his career. As steamships and ocean liners replaced the sailing ships of the 1870s and ‘80s, Jacobsen had no trouble adapting his style to the more “modern” vessels. His later works retain the breeziness and cool tonality of his nineteenth century marine paintings.

The “Adriatic” was built in 1907, the year before our painting was done, by the White Star Line. Over 700 feet long, it carried over 3,000 passengers and crew across the Atlantic from Liverpool or Southampton to New York City. Its well-appointed first class staterooms and public parlors were the last word in luxury travel in 1907. This work was probably commissioned by the White Star Line. When the White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line in 1935, the “Adriatic” made its last ocean crossing, and was sold for scrap to a Japanese firm in 1935.