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The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams"

  • Antonio Jacobsen, The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams", ca. 1895, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1966.83

Luce Center Label

Antonio Jacobsen spent his free time at New York’s harbor and along the Hudson River, painting pictures of vessels as small as tugboats and as large as transatlantic liners. A close look at this painting of the tugboat May McWilliams shows the captain in the top cabin at the front of the vessel and a single passenger at the rear. Harbor captains used tugboats as early as the 1700s to escort larger ships through narrow or complicated passages.

Title
The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams"
Artist
Antonio Jacobsen
Date
ca. 1895
On View
  1. Smithsonian American Art Museum
  2. Luce Foundation Center
  3. 3rd Floor
  4. 9B
Dimensions
22 1/8 x 36 1/8 in. (56.2 x 91.6 cm.)
Copyright
Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Museum purchase

Mediums
oil
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Painting
Keywords
  • Architecture – boat – May McWilliams
  • Waterscape – sea
  • Travel – water – tugboat
Object Number
1966.83
Palette
Linked Open Data URI

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