The Polenov residence was to become an important training centre for budding artists, and Yakunchikova joined as well, taking evening lessons with Elena between 1886 and 1889.

[2] Beginning in 1883 she had private lessons in art with Nikolai Avenirovich Martynov, and from 1885 she studied as an external student at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

[2] Yakunchikova was associated with the Abramtsevo artists, especially her teacher Elena Polenova, whose revival of traditional handicrafts inspired her to embroider and to execute pokerwork.

[2] Yakunchikova can easily be considered the first Russian artist of her generation to organically meld into the European context; her cityscapes of Versailles and Paris are considerably earlier than the more famous ones of Alexandre Benois.

In 1896, the art magazine The Studio wrote about her gravure work, acclaiming her brilliant temperament and great artistic gifts, superior to her master Eugène Delâtre in her realisation of the subject, in her idealism, her spirit and her imagination.

[2][4] In 1900, Yakunchikova's large panel Little Girl and the Wood Spirits (mixed media involving embroidery and applique) was awarded a Silver Medal at the Paris World Fair.

[3] Her other major contribution to the exposition was the display of works by the koustari, traditional artisans, whose applied arts garnered much excitement.

In Russia she is still insufficiently appreciated, and yet there are few contemporary artists - not only here, but also in the West - who wield such a fresh, noble palette, with such broad and vigorous skill.