Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen (4 September 1852 - 29 December 1928) was a Norwegian painter.
He is most commonly associated with his landscapes and portraits.
Biography
Hjalmar Eilif Emanuel Peterssen was born in Christiania, now Oslo, Norway.
He was the son of Jon Peterssen (1814-1880) and Anne Marie Andersen (1812–1887).
He grew up in the neighborhood of Hegdehaugen in the district of Frogner.
He attended the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole) in Christiania from 1866–1870.
He entered the Johan Fredrik Eckersberg School of Painting in 1869. He trained with Knud Bergslien and Morten Müller in the autumn of 1870.
In 1871 he left Oslo to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.
Later that year he moved to Karlsruhe, where he was a student of Ludwig des Coudres at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe and Wilhelm Riefstahl at Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School.
In the fall of 1873 Peterssen traveled to Munich where he studied under at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich under Wilhelm von Diez and Franz von Lenbach.
In Munich Peterssen met other famous artists such as Arnold Böcklin and Karl von Piloty.
Eilif Peterssen made several trips to France and Italy.
In 1896 he went to Arques-la-Bataille in Normandy, where he painted several landscapes, and from France he went together with his family to Rome in 1897.
In 1903, Peterssen again visited Italy and in Rapallo near Genova, he painted the impressionist motif Winter in the South (Washerwomen in Rapallo).
During the dissolution of Union between Sweden and Norway in 1905, Peterssen was commissioned to design the new coat of arms of Norway.
In his later years Peterssen travelled all over Norway to paint landscapes.
He made several visits to Skogstad in Valdres, where he was particularly inspired by the great mountain landscape.
In 1920-21, he made his last travel abroad to Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Paul-de-Vence in Provence where he painted several landscapes of the small villages on the hills between Nice and Cannes.
Career
Peterssen made his breakthrough as a painter in Munich with the history painting Christian II signs the death sentence of Torben Oxe (1876) which was acquired by the Verbindung für historische Kunst in Stuttgart.
In Munich he also painted one of his biggest paintings, the altarpiece The Crucifixion (disappeared) for Johannes Church (Johanneskirken) in Oslo which was demolished in 1928.
Later he was to paint nine more altarpieces and a church decoration, The Ascension (1908-1909) in Ullern Church in Oslo.
Peterssen is famous also for his portraits.
In Munich he painted some of his best portraits, of artist friends such as Harriet Backer and Hans Heyerdahl and of the German painters Anton Windmaier and Adolf Heinrich Lier.
He painted Princess Anna Elisabeth Reuss at Schleiz palace (Schloss Schleiz) in Gera during 1878.
Peterssen was influenced by the brownish palette of the Munich School painters.
However Peterssen was soon to adopt the increasingly popular En plein air style when he traveled to Italy in 1879.
He visited Sora in 1880 together with the Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer, and in this mountain village he painted his great naturalistic work Siesta in an osteria in Sora.
A sharp realism is characteristic of his big canvas Piazza Montanara (1883) painted in Rome.
After the death of his first wife Nicoline in 1882, Peterssen visited Skagen in Denmark together with a group of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian artist friends, among them P.S. Krøyer, Michael and Anna Ancher, Christian Krohg and Oscar Bjørck in the summer of 1883.
At Skagen, Peterssen painted some of his first evocative landscapes, such as Summer Evening at Skagen (1883).
In the summer of 1884 Peterssen stayed at Sandø, a small island in the Oslofjord, where he painted several versions of Summer Evening, Sandø.
These paintings with a contemplative woman sitting in the foreground would influence the famous Norwegian painter Edvard Munch in his later "Melancholy" paintings.
During a visit to Venice in 1885 together with the Norwegian painter Frits Thaulow, Peterssen painted some of his most impressionistic paintings, such as Canal Grande and From Riva degli Schiavoni.
But it was on his return to Norway in 1886 that Peterssen painted his most famous evocative landscapes, Summer Evening and Nocturne (1887).
Summer Evening has been shown in many exhibitions abroad, among them the "Northern Light" exhibition in America in 1982–1983.
Peterssen continued to paint portraits of famous Norwegians, among them authors Alexander Kielland (1887) (whose cousin Magda he married in 1888), Arne Garborg (1894) and Henrik Ibsen (1895), whom he had painted as early as 1875.
He also made a portrait of the well-known composer Edvard Grieg in 1893.
Peterssen made a success at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 with Salmon Fishermen at Nesøya, a painting combining the evocative and the naturalistic painting style.
This was followed by landscape paintings and motifs of salmon fishermen at Jæren in the southern part of Norway where Peterssen stayed in the summertime in the small village of Sele.
During the 1890s Peterssen made several paintings influenced by Impressionism, among them the most important is Sunshine, Kalvøya (Magda sewing) (1891).
This painting made the Swedish art critic Erik Wettergren compare Peterssen with the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot.
Another impressionist painting is From Akershus (1893).
Inspired by Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite art, Peterssen painted a series of pictures with motifs from a mediaeval French legend, Gujamar's Song (1905–1907), for the publisher William Nygaard.
He painted another series based on a Norwegian folk song, Rikeball and the Proud Gudbjørg (1911), for the shipping magnate Jørgen Breder Stang.
He also painted the historical event when King Christian II signs Torben Oxe's death warrant in 1874-76.
The queen is depicted sitting on the king's left hand, imploring him, trying to save Torben Oxe.
He died at Lysaker in Bærum on December 29, 1928. | Source: © Wikipedia
Hjalmar Eilif Emmanuel Peterssen (1852-1928) è stato un pittore Norvegese.
Nacque a Cristiania (oggi Oslo) il 4 settembre 1852 e in questa città studiò all'Accademia d'Arte fino al 1869.
Dal 1871 si trasferì a Copenaghen dove continuò i suoi studi, che si conclusero però all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Monaco di Baviera dove l'artista si trasferì nel 1873.
A Monaco divenne allievo di Wilhelm von Diez.
Monaco è la città in cui Peterssen esordì con dipinti dal tema storico, come il famoso Cristiano II firma la condanna a morte di Torben Oxe del 1876 che gli procurò un immediato successo, e di carattere religioso, come una pala d'altare raffigurante la Crocefissione (andata perduta).
Al periodo di Monaco, risalgono anche i ritratti di Harriet Backer ed Andrea Gram.
Influenzato dalla Scuola di Monaco, né riprese le tonalità marroni.
Dal 1879 Peterssen viaggiò per l'Italia dove la sua pittura si fece incline al realismo, adottando inoltre lo stile En plein air.
A questo periodo corrispondono le opere Siesta in un'osteria di Sora (1880), Dalla Piazza Montanara (1882) e l'Adorazione dei Magi (1881).
Dopo la morte della prima moglie Nicoline nel 1882, Peterssen visitò Skagen con altri artisti suoi amici - Peder Severin Krøyer, Michael ed Anna Ancher, Christian Krohg ed Oscar Björck - nell'estate del 1883, esperienza a cui risale l'opera Sera estiva a Skagen.
Ritornato in Norvegia, si dedicò alla pittura naturalista.
Tra le opere più importanti di questo periodo ci sono quelle relative alla sua permanenza sull'isola di Sandø, nell'Oslofjord, nell'estate del 1884. Tra queste, molte opere paesaggistiche.
A Venezia nel 1885 con Frits Thaulow, dipense opere di carattere impressionista sul Canal Grande.
Al 1886 in Norvegia risale l'opera Sera estiva - esposta anche all'estero - ed all'anno seguente Notturno.
Peterssen eseguì ritratti di vari personaggi famosi norvegesi, quali Alexander Kielland nel 1887 (di cui sposò la cugina Magda nel 1888), Arne Garborg nel 1894 e Henrik Ibsen nel 1895.
Nel 1893 aveva inoltre eseguito un ritratto del compositore Edvard Grieg.
All'Esposizione universale del 1889 di Parigi espose Il pescatore di salmoni, riscuotendo successo.
A quest'opera ne seguirono altre sullo stesso tema e di carattere paesaggistico, molto influenzate dall'impressionismo.
Nel 1896 visità Arques-la-Bataille in Normandia, dove dipinse varie paesaggi.
L'anno seguente torno a Roma e nel 1893, di nuovo in Italia, visitò Rapallo.
Nel 1905 disegnò lo stemma del nuovo Regno di Norvegia.
Traendo ispirazione dal Simbolismo e dai Preraffaelliti, eseguì delle raffigurazioni per l'editore William Nygaard.
Negli ultimi anni, eseguì numerosi paesaggi norvegesi; nel 1920-1921 visitò la Provenza, ultimo suo viaggio all'estero prima di morire il 29 dicembre 1928 a Lysaker, presso Bærum.
Eilif Peterssen | Portrait of the Composer Edvard Grieg, 1891 | National
Museum of Art Architecture and Design
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