Bogolyubov's maternal grandfather was the philosopher and social critic Alexander Radishchev.

[2] In 1841, Bogolyubov graduated from military school, serving in the Imperial Russian Navy and travelling with the fleet to many countries.

In 1849, he started to attend classes of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied under Maxim Vorobiev.

French painters Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny were good friends and collaborators with Bogolyubov.

His paintings lost all traces of Romanticism, replacing that element with staunch realism of the natural.

[3] The naming of the museum after the "first Russian revolutionary", Alexander Radishchev, was a direct challenge to the authorities: Bogolyubov had to endure a legal battle to get permission.

He left all his money and capital (around 200 thousand Russian rubles (approximately US$6 million)) to the museum and its painting school.