Vilhelm Petersen (painter)

He was the son of a wagon manufacturer. In 1830, he became a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied landscape painting.[1] Three years later, he exhibited his first painting, "A Party in Nødebo", which was purchased by the Kunstforeningen.

He received a travel stipend from the Academy in 1848 but, because of the political unrest in Europe, had to postpone leaving until 1850. Travelling to Italy by way of the Netherlands, Germany and the Tyrol, he spent two years in Rome.[1]

He exhibited regularly until 1860, then stopped for a few years; holding some major showings from 1873 to 1874. Part of this break was due to family obligations that arose from his father's illness and death and the necessity of taking work as a drawing teacher.[1] During this time, he also married the daughter of a retired sea captain. In 1877, he was a recipient of the "Sødrings Legat", an endowment for artists established by the painter Frederik Sødring.

He was one of the first Danish landscape painters to work on Bornholm and in the moorlands of Jutland. Small fishing villages were especially attractive to him. He is buried at the Assistens Cemetery.

• 
  Church of Holmen in Copenhagen,
  c. 1855
• 
  View of the Parish of Østerlars
• 
  Fishwives at Gammel Strand viewed from Højbro Plads with Slotsholmen in the background

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vilhelm Petersen.

• Works by Petersen in major collections:
  • Study of a Stone Heap, 1843, oil on canvas; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • The Rhine at Remagen, 1850, oil on paper, laid down on canvas; in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  • Rhine Landscape, ca. 1850, oil on paper, laid down on canvas; in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  • View towards Hesbjerg from the Hornbaek Estate, 1857, oil on paper on board; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.