Vilhelm Peter Carl Petersen (17 December 1812 – 25 July 1880) was a Danish landscape painter.

In 1830, he became a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he studied landscape painting.

[2] He received a travel stipend from the Academy in 1848 but, because of the political unrest in Europe, had to postpone leaving until 1850.

Travelling to Italy by way of the Netherlands, Germany and the Tyrol, he spent two years in Rome.

Part of this break was due to family obligations that arose from his father's illness and death and the necessity of taking work as a drawing teacher.