Antonio Jacobsen, The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams", ca. 1895, oil on canvas, 22 1⁄8 x 36 1⁄8 in. (56.2 x 91.6 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1966.83
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Artwork Details
- Title
- The Ocean-Going Tug “May McWilliams”
- Artist
- Date
- ca. 1895
- Location
- Dimensions
- 22 1⁄8 x 36 1⁄8 in. (56.2 x 91.6 cm.)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- oil on canvas
- Classifications
- Subjects
- Travel — water — tugboat
- Architecture — boat — May McWilliams
- Waterscape — sea
- Object Number
- 1966.83
Artwork Description
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.
