After being wounded in the Polish November Uprising, he took up drawing during his convalescence and decided to attend classes at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.

After a brief stay in Russia in 1847, he returned to Rome, where he met Johann Friedrich Overbeck and the Nazarene movement.

His work in that style, "Sermon of the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos", led to his becoming "Professor of Historical Painting" when he returned to Russia in 1856.

[2] Back in Saint Petersburg, he devoted himself to teaching and managing a pension fund for artists at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

[2] His works include a series of paintings of Alexander Nevsky for the Grand Kremlin Palace and murals for Saint Isaac's Cathedral.