Otto Reinhold Jacobi

Otto Reinhold Jacobi (27 February 1812 8 February 1901) was a German-Canadian artist. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

Life and work

Born in 1830 Königsberg, Jacobi studied in Berlin at the Royal Academy of Arts. He then studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. As a landscape and genre painter, he worked in Nassau and Canada. In 1837 he was appointed the court painter to the Duchess of Nassau in Wiesbaden. In those years, Jacobi gave the young Ludwig Knaus his first lessons in oil painting and advised him to study under Karl Ferdinand Sohn at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. His work was well known in Europe and he received many commissions from royalty.

Jacobi's decision to emigrate to Canada seems sudden in light of his apparent success in Europe. While on a visit to New York in 1860, he was offered a commission to paint Shawinigan Falls as a presentation gift was needed for the Prince of Wales state visit later that year. Instead of returning to Europe after the painting was completed, he settled in Montreal where he spent the next ten years. It could be that court life became too difficult or simply that greater opportunities were available for his children in North America. While he continued to ship paintings for sale back to Europe, he and his family remained in North America.

In Montreal, Jacobi painted landscapes, taught privately and worked for Notman and Fraser. Unlike the domestic landscape of farms and villages seen in the work of Cornelius Krieghoff or the depiction of aboriginal settlements and activities by Paul Kane, Jacobi painted waterfalls and forests. His compositions portray the wilderness as a romantic and heroic place, glowing with an inner light.