Bashinjaghian was born to Armenian parents on 16 September 1857 in a small town of Sighnaghi in eastern Georgian province of Kakheti, part of the Russian Empire at the time.

[1][2] He returned to his hometown Sighnaghi the same year and soon started to travel throughout the Caucasus: Lake Sevan, Yerevan, Ashtarak and the holy capital of the Armenian Church - Ejmiatsin, Georgia and the Northern Caucasus, which caused the artist to make a row of canvas of the local landscapes.

In 1897, he created a series of oil painting of Ani, the medieval Armenian capital of thousand churches.

[2] Bashinjaghian died on 4 October 1925 in Tiflis and was buried at the side of Sayat-Nova's tomb in the backyard of Saint George Cathedral.

[1][2] Exhibitions of Bashinjaghian's works were held in Yerevan, Moscow St. Petersburg and Riga, many of them in 1957–1958, in memory of the 100th anniversary of his birth.