Carl Peter Burnitz (14 January 1824, Frankfurt - 18 August 1886, Frankfurt) was a German landscape painter who began as a lawyer. He became an orphan at the age of nine and was placed under the care of his uncle, the architect Rudolf Burnitz. After graduating from the local schools, he entered the University of Berlin, where he studied law. In 1844, he moved to the University of Göttingen, then to the University of Heidelberg where he received his Doktor Juris (Doctor of Law) degree in 1847.

That summer, he began an extensive tour of Rome, Naples and Palermo. He returned to Frankfurt in 1849, briefly practicing law but, feeling dissatisfied with the legal profession and inspired by what he had seen in Italy, he took another tri...