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.

While he continued to ship paintings for sale back to Europe, he and his family remained in North America.

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 earlier North American work was often of specific locations, noted beauty spots that would be recognizable to his viewers.

[3] He was not the only artist drawn from Europe to the new opportunities found as North American cities began to build their own cultural institutions.

[2] From Montreal, Jacobi moved to Philadelphia then later to Toronto, after being invited to join the Ontario Society of Artists in 1876.