The Ocean-Going Tug “May McWilliams”

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: Antonio Jacobsen
Date: ca. 1895
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
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Luce Foundation Center
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3rd Floor
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9B
Dimensions: 22 ¹⁄₈ x 36 ¹⁄₈ in. (56.2 x 91.6 cm.)
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Travel — water — tugboat
Architecture — boat — May McWilliams
Waterscape — sea
Object Number: 1966.83
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/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.