Born in Vinderød near Frederiksværk, Denmark. He was the son of Jens Peter Larsen (1826–97) and Julie Sophie Olsen (1826–97). Larsen studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1889. He first exhibited at the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition in 1887. Larsen exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, the General Art and Industrial Exposition of Stockholm in 1897 and the Baltic Exhibition at Malmö in 1914. Larsen travel to England 1889; Berlin and Dresden 1891; Italy 1898; Paris, the Netherlands, Belgium 1899.