Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (1850-1921)
The S.S. New York Outward Bound
signed, dated and inscribed 'A. Jacobsen 1906 / 31 Palisade Av. West Hoboken N.J.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
18 1/8 x 30 in. (46 x 76.2 cm.)
Painted in 1906.
Footnotes:
Provenance
Private collection, Massachusetts, by 1984.
Sale, Christie's, New York, January 30, 2008, lot 292.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature
H.S. Sniffen, Antonio Jacobsen - The Checklist: Paintings and Sketches by Antonio N.G. Jacobsen (1850-1921), New York, 1984, pp. 214-5, no. 19.

The present work was recorded in H.S. Sniffen's checklist of paintings by Antonio Jacobsen and is listed as one of six paintings depicting the S.S. New York in the author's original publication. The other five, three of which were painted in 1905 and the others painted in 1907 and 1910, were listed in the collections of Parker Gallery, England, Henderson Gallery, England, Marine Arts Gallery, Massachusetts, private collection, New Jersey, and The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia respectively. Three sketches of the S.S. New York done in 1900, 1903, and 1905 were listed, one of which was listed in the collection of The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia. There are three paintings depicting the S.S. New York in the author's addenda to the checklist of paintings by Antonio Jacobsen. One painted in 1898 and the other two in 1905 were listed with Christie's, New York in 1982, Smith Gallery, New York, and a private collection, Virginia respectively.

The S.S. New York, formerly the S.S. City of New York, was a British passenger liner built by the Inman Line in 1888. On March 15th of that year, she was christened by Lady Randolph Churchill (1854-1921) and on August 1st she made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City where she arrived on August 10th. Built by the builders J&G Thomson of Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the largest and fastest passenger liner on the Atlantic at the time and was the first twin-screw steamer express liner. In February 1893, the Inman Line was merged into the American Line and she was renamed the S.S. New York. The British government responded to the change of ownership by revoking the line's mail contract. The American Line's owners lobbied U.S. Congress to replace the subsidy they had received as a British flag carrier and allow the S.S. New York and her sister ship the, S.S. Paris to register in the U.S. despite the law that only permitted ships built in the U.S. to do so. Congress eventually permitted it with the stipulation that the American Line build two similar ships in the U.S. and allow all four to be used by the U.S. Government in times of crisis. On February 22, 1893, President Benjamin Harrison boarded the S.S. New York and raised the American Flag, christening her as a U.S. flag carrier.

In 1898 after the onset of the Spanish-American War, she was chartered by the United States Navy as an auxiliary cruiser from April 26 to September 2 and was renamed the U.S.S. Harvard. She resumed her civilian service as the S.S. New York on the New York-Southampton route in January 1899 and, during her first voyage returning as a civilian liner, she had to remain in Southampton for repairs that lasted three months. She was taken out of service again several years later and was fitted with quadruple expansion engines and her funnels were reduced from three to two taller ones. She resumed her regular service again in 1903 and in 1912, the S.S. New York made headlines when she narrowly avoided a collision with Titanic, which was leaving port to begin her ill-fated maiden voyage to New York. A year later in 1913, she was re-configured as a second and third-class liner only. When the U.S. entered World War I, she was commissioned by the U.S. Navy as a troop transport and was renamed the U.S.S. Plattsburg in 1918. After the war, she resumed passenger service in 1920 and, after several sales and transfers of ownership, she enjoyed her last Atlantic crossing on June 10, 1922 from New York to Naples and then Constantinople. Later that year she was taken out of service and sold for scrap.