Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen
Danish/American, 1850-1921
Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen was a Danish-born American marine painter renowned for his precise and prolific ship portraits. Raised in Copenhagen in a family of violin makers, he was named for the masters of the instrument: Antonio Stradivari, Nicolo Amati, and Gasparo da Salo. Though briefly enrolled at the Royal Academy, his formal studies ended early due to family hardship.
Jacobsen emigrated to New York in 1873, settling near the harbor in Union City, New Jersey. He began sketching ships from Battery Park and soon found steady work painting vessels for shipping lines and captains. Over a four-decade career, Jacobsen painted more than 6,000 ship portraits, chronicling the transition from sail to steam with technical accuracy. His works served as both commercial records and artistic tributes.
Clients included major American and European steamship lines, who commissioned portraits of their fleets for offices and shipowners alike. Works like his SS Commonwealth, 1902 underscore his role as the era’s leading visual chronicler of maritime life. Today, Jacobsen’s paintings are prized by collectors for their historical value and understated elegance. His legacy endures as a bridge between craftsmanship and seafaring tradition, successfully preserving the golden age of shipping.
