Otto Jacobi

Otto Reinhold Jacobi, painter (born in 1812 in Königsberg, East Prussia; died in 1901 in Jarva, Dakota). Jacobi studied painting first in the village where he was born, with C.E. Rauschke, and then in the academies of Berlin and Düsseldorf under the direction of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, from 1833 to 1837. Jacobi was invited to come to Canada in 1860 to paint a picture of Shawinigan Falls that had been commissioned by the Prince of Wales during his visit to Montréal. At that time, Jacobi already had a considerable reputation in Europe and America and had completed commissions for the Empress of Russia and the Duke of Nassau. He had even been appointed court painter in Wiesbaden, around 1841. Apparently, he liked Québec: he worked in the Notman studios in Montréal for many years. He also travelled in the United States, and he settled in Toronto in 1891. After his wife died at the end of the century, he went to live with his son, who owned a ranch in Jarva, Dakota, where he died in 1901.

Jacobi is known for his marvellous water colours and his oil-painted landscapes. He had a special talent for evoking the Canadian forest in autumn. He travelled throughout Canada and painted the Rocky Mountains. He became a founding member of the Society of Canadian Artists in Montréal in 1867. In 1880, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and he served as its president from 1890 to 1893. Examples of Jacobi’s paintings hang in the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée du Québec.