Eilif Peterssen

1852 – 1928

Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen, Norwegian painter. He attended Johan Fredrik Eckersberg's School of Drawing in Christiania (1869-70) and then briefly studied painting with Knud Bergslien (1827-1908). In the spring of 1871 Peterssen moved on to the academies of Karlsruhe (1871-73) and Munich (1873-75). He then stayed in Munich until the autumn of 1878 but made many study trips abroad: he returned to Norway but also visited London and Paris and made several journeys to Italian cities. He thus acquired a more profound knowledge of both earlier and contemporary European art than that available to most Norwegians studying in Munich. He painted landscapes and portraits of famous Norwegians, among them the well-known composer Edvard Grieg in 1893. During the 1890s Peterssen made several paintings influenced by Impressionism. In his later years he travelled all over Norway to paint landscapes.

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