Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of a violin maker. Although he had been expected to follow his father’s craft, he chose art instead and studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. His studies were interrupted in 1871, when he emigrated to the United States to avoid conscription into the Franco-Prussian War. In New York City he found work decorating iron safes, and from there was employed to paint portraits of all of the vessels in the Old Dominion Steamship Line. He spent a lifetime portraying steamships and other vessels. Jacobsen was probably the most prolific of American marine painters; his works can be found in virtually every large marine collection in the United States and Europe.
From: Dorothy E.R. Brewington, Dictionary of Marine Artists, Mystic
Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, 1982
