Peter Marius Hansen (13 May 1868, Faaborg – 6 October 1928, Faaborg) was a Danish painter who became one of the Fynboerne or "Funen Painters" group living and working on the island of Funen.

Hansen attended the Copenhagen Technical School before studying under Kristian Zahrtmann at the Kunstnernes Frie Studieskoler (1884–1890). His travels included the Netherlands (1892 and 1909), and several periods in Italy from 1899 where he was in Civita d'Antino with Zahrtmann (1904) and in Pompei with Theodor Philipsen (1919–21). He also travelled to Belgium and Paris in 1909.

Together with Johannes Larsen, Poul S. Christiansen and Fritz Syberg, Hansen was one of the first Funen artists to study under Zahrtmann, leaving the traditions of the Danish Academy and venturing into Naturalism and Realism.

Initially adopting Zarhtmann's approach but soon influenced by Philipsen's Impressionism, Hansen became one of the finest Colourists of his day. Most of his works are genre paintings inspired by country scenes from both Funen and Italy. Bulgende rug (1894) and other earlier landscapes with cornfields and thick hedges, often under cloudy skies, were inspired by Vincent van Gogh whose paintings were exhibited in Copenhagen in 1893. Others are more Impressionistic.

Hansen's frequent visits to Italy influenced his work, as evidenced in the numerous paintings from Naples and Pompei with their sunburnt landscapes and peasant life. From 1905, Hansen spent his summers in his native Faaborg where he painted scenes of the town and the surrounding countryside and his winters in Copenhagen where he captured street life in the districts of Nørrebro and Vesterbro.


Source:
Wikipedia, Jan. 2019

Peter Hansen grew up in Faaborg. After learning the art of painting along with Fritz Syberg, first from his father, decorative painter Syrak Hansen, Peter Hansen and Fritz Syberg trained as artists with Johannes Larsen at Zahrtmann's School in Copenhagen.

Peter Hansen later took many trips, mostly to Italy, where he stayed 5 times between 1899 and 1928. When in Denmark, he often found his motifs for painting on his native island of Funen, where he was one of the central core members of the artists' group The Funish Painters. He also painted in Copenhagen, where he lived for part of each year, starting in 1905.

Peter Hansen painted what he saw around him: the surrounding landscape, town, people on Funen, in Italy and in Copenhagen.

His images show a typically close-up and immediate view of nature and a sure sense of colour, light and movement in the motif. Like the other Funish Painters, he was influenced, early on, by their friend, the painter Theodor Philipsen.


Source:
Website of Johannes Larsen Museet, Jan. 2019