
Peter Janssen

Johann Peter Theodor Janssen (12 December 1844, Düsseldorf – 19 February 1908, Düsseldorf) was a German historical painter.
Biography.
He was born at Düsseldorf, son of the engraver (1817–1894), by whom he was first instructed before studying at the Academy under Karl Sohn and 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 professor at the Düsseldorf Academy 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. His more important mural paintings include:
Of his oil paintings, the "Denial of Peter" is in the Academy at Philadelphia; the "Infancy of Bacchus" (1882) excited great admiration at the International Exhibition in Munich; and "Walther Dodde and the Peasants of Berg before the Battle of Worringen, 1288" (Düsseldorf Gallery), a composition of great dramatic power, containing many life-size figures, was awarded the great gold medal in Berlin in 1893.
He was the brother of sculptor Karl Janssen whose works include the monument to the Kaiser at Düsseldorf, and "Woman Hewing Stone," in the National Gallery, Berlin.