[2] He attended the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry (Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole) in Christiania from 1866–1870.

In 1920–21, he made his last travel abroad to Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Paul-de-Vence in Provence where he painted several landscapes of the small villages on the hills between Nice and Cannes.

[2] Peterssen made his breakthrough as a painter in Munich with the history painting Christian II signing the Death Warrant of Torben Oxe (1876) which was acquired by the Verbindung für historische Kunst in Stuttgart.

In Munich he painted some of his best portraits, of artist friends such as Harriet Backer and Hans Heyerdahl and of the German painters Anton Windmaier and Adolf Heinrich Lier.

[2] After the death of his first wife Nicoline in 1882, Peterssen visited Skagen in Denmark together with a group of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian artist friends, among them P.S.

This was followed by landscape paintings and motifs of salmon fishermen at Jæren in the southern part of Norway where Peterssen stayed in the summertime in the small village of Sele.

This painting made the Swedish art critic Erik Wettergren compare Peterssen with the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot.

[2][7] Inspired by Symbolist and Pre-Raphaelite art, Peterssen painted a series of pictures with motifs from a mediaeval French legend, Gujamar's Song (1905–1907), for the publisher William Nygaard.

He painted another series based on a Norwegian folk song, Rikeball and the Proud Gudbjørg (1911), for the shipping magnate Jørgen Breder Stang.

He also painted the historical event when King Christian II signs Torben Oxe's death warrant in 1874-76.

[4] [8][9][10][11] Eilif Peterssen was first married in 1879 to Inger Birgitte Cecilie Nicoline Bache Ravn (1850–1882), a daughter of the court marshal, Major General Johan Georg Boll Gram (1809–1873).