At the age of ten, after his father's death, he wrote a letter to the Imperial Academy of Arts, requesting admission and pleading poverty.

He found the teaching there unsatisfactory, however and, after numerous unanswered petitions to the Academy, moved to Rome without permission.

[1] Later, on orders from the Imperial Academy, he finished his course in Bologna, then lived successively in Rome, Venice and Florence.

In the following years, he turned to painting more contemporary historical scenes, under patriotic pressure from the war with Napoleon.

[1] Although he is not considered to be a first-rate artist, he had a special talent for teaching and was a great influence on Russian history painting.