The series on the Gatchina hunting, ordered by the Russian tsar, gained Zichy standing as a court artist.

The Victory of the Genius of Destruction, painted for the Paris Exhibition, was banned by French authorities because of its daring antimilitarist message.

Zichy left Paris in 1881 and returned to St. Petersburg, after short stays in Nice, Vienna and his native Zala.

He was commissioned to illustrate the Georgian epic poem, The Knight in the Panther's Skin, at the request of intelligentsia of the country.

Examples of works he illustrated include The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách, in 1887, and twenty-four ballads of János Arany, 1894–98.