Peder Mørk Mønsted was one of the most famous international landscape painters of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was born in Denmark in 1859 as the son of a rich shipbuilder. He spent his childhood by the North Sea in East Jutland. The school education of their sons was very important to the wealthy parents. They carefully nurtured their children's talents. Thus, young Peder received painting lessons in his childhood at the Crown Prince Ferdinand Drawing School in neighbouring Aarhus. Andreas Fritz, a Danish landscape painter, was his first teacher. At the age of 16, Peder left his parents' home and moved alone to Copenhagen to study at the local art academy. Here he was taught painting by Julius Exner, a Danish genre painter, among others. Already at the university Peder studied the works of Peter Christian Skovgaard and Christen Schjellerup Købke. The painters were among the most influential personalities during the Golden Age, an epoch in Danish painting that coincided with the Danish monarchy's loss of political power.
After three years of art studies, Peder Monsted leaves the Academy to receive further training from Peder Severin Krøyer. Krøyer was a member of a Skagen-based artist community. His works at that time are classified as impressionist open-air painting. In 1882 Peder went on a journey. His first stop was Italy. In Capri he was overwhelmed by the bright sunlight and the Mediterranean landscapes. He then travelled to Switzerland and from there on to France, to the capital Paris. He worked in the studio of the famous pompier painter William Adolphe Bouguereau. He taught Peder how to use the brush freely, which led to a change in the character of Peder's painting. His paintings gained in expression and seemed more alive to the viewer.
After some time in Paris, Peder returned to Denmark. He moved into a new apartment in Copenhagen and attended courses at the Free Study School. Here he met his former teacher Peder Severin Krøyer again, who helped him to exhibit his landscape paintings in the rooms of the first Danish Art Association. This was followed by wanderings through Europe. Peder returned to Italy and Paris and lived in Greece, Monaco and Algeria. In Greece he was a guest of the royal family for half a year. He made portraits of them. On his travels he collected countless motifs, which he worked on at home in his Danish studio, and then offered them at international sales exhibitions. Especially in Germany he had a large customer base. Especially in the Bavarian capital Munich his landscape paintings were sold at high prices. He remained true to the naturalistic painting style until his death and drew mainly Danish landscape motifs; untouched forest and river landscapes.