Peter Janssen


Johann Peter Theodor Janssen was a German historical painter.

Biography

Janssen was born in Düsseldorf, son of the engraver , by whom he was first instructed before studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Karl Ferdinand Sohn and Eduard Bendemann. He is principally known through a series of decorative works whose monumental style and sound naturalism won him a reputation as one of the foremost historical painters of his time. He became a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1877 and its director in 1895, and was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1885. In Berlin, he worked also for Emil Hünten.
He was the brother of sculptor Karl Janssen, whose works include the in Düsseldorf, and "Steinklopferin", which is owned by the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
Janssen's grandson was also a painter.

Works

Janssen's significant murals include:
  • "Colonisation der Ostsee-Provinzen durch die Hansa. 1201.", in the New Exchange in Bremen
  • "Die Mythe des Prometheus", 11 part mural sequence, in what was formerly named the "second Cornelius Room" of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin
  • Six large and three smaller murals of scenes from the history of Erfurt, in the Festsaal of the
  • A group of frieze and ceiling paintings: "Menschenleben", "Phantasie", "Schönheit", and "Natur", in the Aula of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
  • Seven part mural sequence of scenes from the legend of Otto der Schütz and the history of Marburg, in the Aula of the University of Marburg's building
Some of Janssen's significant oil paintings: