Introduction
Vilhelm Peter Carl Petersen (17 December 1812 in Copenhagen – 25 July 1880 in Copenhagen) was a Danish landscape painter.
Biography
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. 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.
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. 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.