Antonio Jacobsen
American, 1850-1921
Liberty, 1909
Signed Antonio Jacobsen, dated 1909 and inscribed 31 Palisade Ave. West Hoboken NJ (lr) and inscribed as titled (lc)
Oil on board
24 1/2 x 42 1/4 inches
Anthony Peluso, an authority on the work of Antonio Jacobsen, writes of Liberty: "[This] is an authentic albeit an atypical work by Antonio Jacobsen. Obviously it is it not, nor was it intended to be a "typical" ship"s portrait.
The centerpiece is the Statue of Liberty, flanked to the left by sail-steam ships, with a private sailboat in the distance, and harbor workers retrieving a floating barrel at lower right. All appear under Jacobsen"s characteristic-blue sky; the wind is blowing toward the Statue of Liberty. At bottom, Jacobsen assigned the title "Liberty, " in red. It could be read, simply, as the environment of "liberty": commerce, labor and sport and is the type of work that at one time may have hung in a school, a library, or a government office. It is a painting that will r