Antonio Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a family of violin makers. He was an accomplished string player and throughout his life music was to remain an avocation.He studied at Copenhagen's Royal Academy, and emigrated to the the United States in 1871. He frequented the harbor around Battery Park, sketching, until he was hired by the Marvin Safe Company to decorate safes. Subsequently he received commissions from sea captains, ship owners, and steamship companies. The Old Dominion Line, the Fall River Line, and the White Star Line hired him to paint visual records of their entire fleets; he also received commissions from the Clyde, Black Ball, Mallory, Anchor, and the Red Star Lines.
Jacobsen's style is often, though not exclusively, characterized by a flattened perspective. He had a complete understanding of ships and achieved great accuracy of detail in his works.
In 1878 Jacobsen married; he remained in New York City until 1880, when he moved to Hoboken, New Jersey. His home became a gathering place for marine artists including James Bard, Fred Cozzens, Fred Pansing, James Buttersworth, Worden Wood, Albert Bishop, and Ward Stanton.
Jacobsen was very successful for many years, though he suffered a decline in finances toward the end of his life. His daughter Helen and son Carl (who became a painter in his own right) assisted in painting the skies and water on some of their father's later canvases. When lithographs became a popular form of disseminating artwork to the general public, Jacobsen resisted attempts to capitalize on his work by reproducing it in print form.
He was said to have painted about 6,000 ship portraits during his career, often creating multiple versions of a vessel. His works stand as both artistic and historic documentation of international ships during the transition from the age of sail to the age of steam.