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Polycarpus Godfred Benjamin Christensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on July 23, 1845. He began painting at an early age, studying at the age of 15 at the Danish Royal Academy where he studied from 1860-1867. He was a pupil of the Danish master F.C. Kiaerskou.
In his landscape painting Christensen tried to combine early French Impressionism with Danish Naturalism. He began exhibiting at the Danish Royal Academy at Charlottenborg in 1862, from which time he became known as one of the premier landscape painters in Denmark. He was the winner of the Neuhausen prize in 1865 and the Sodring prize in 1869. He won a bursary to the Royal Academy in 1870, became a member 1881, Council Member in 1887 and received the title of Professor in 1888. He was named Knight of Danebrog in 1892. He continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1929.
One of the turning points in Godfred Christensen’s career came in 1869 when he travelled to Paris where he met and was inspired by the techniques of many of the French ‘Fontainebleau” artists. The same year he travelled to Rome where he met the Belgian artist Xavier de Monthier and the Italian artist Enrico Nardini.
French art influenced Christensen the most and he continued to work on translating the French painting methods into the Danish Golden Age. He painted in Jutland, around the region of Himmelbjerget. Today the work of Godfred Christensen is considered one of the major art links between 19th and 20th century Danish painting. His work is represented in the Museum of Copenhagen.