Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School
He attended the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry ("Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole") in Christiania from 1866–1870. He entered the Johan Fredrik Eckersberg School of Painting in 1869. He trained with Knud Bergslien and Morten Müller in the autumn of 1870. In 1871 he left Oslo to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Later that year he moved to Karlsruhe, where he was a student of Ludwig des Coudres at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe and at Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School. In the fall of 1873 Peterssen traveled to Munich where he studied under at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich under Wilhelm von Diez and Franz von Lenbach. In Munich Peterssen met other famous artists such as Arnold Böcklin and Karl von Piloty.