Peter Nicolai Arbo was a Norwegian historical painter, who specialized in painting motifs from Norwegian history and images from Norse mythology. He is most noted for Asgårdsreien, a dramatic motif based on the Wild Hunt legend and Valkyrie, which depicts a female figure from Norse mythology.

Peter Nicolai Arbo grew up at Gulskogen Manor in Gulskogen, a borough in Drammen, Norway. He was the son of headmaster Christian Fredrik Arbo (1791–1868) and his wife Marie Christiane von Rosen. His brother Carl Oscar Eugen Arbo was a military medical doctor and a pioneer in Norwegian anthropologic studies. Arbo's childhood home, Gulskogen, was built in 1804 as a summer residence for his older cousin, lumber dealer and industrialist Peter Nicola...