Union between Sweden and Norway
Eilif Peterssen made several trips to France and Italy. In 1896 he went to Arques-la-Bataille in Normandy, where he painted several landscapes, and from France he went together with his family to Rome in 1897. In 1903, Peterssen again visited Italy and in Rapallo near Genova, he painted the impressionist motif "Winter in the South (Washerwomen in Rapallo)". During the dissolution of Union between Sweden and Norway in 1905, Peterssen was commissioned to design the new coat of arms of Norway.