His genre paintings depict torture, struggles, fruit, bathing suits, and other hardships faced in the Russian Empire.

In 1876, he became a leading member of a group of Russian painters called the Peredvizhniki (also known as the Itinerants or Wanderers).

He died of phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption) in Kislovodsk on July 7 [O.S.

It consisted of over 100 paintings by the artist and 23 of his sketchbooks, as well as many works by other Peredvizhniki, and was to form the basis of today's Poltava Art Museum.

Brother — Vasily Alexandrovich (1848-after 1915) — chemical engineer, was married to Elizabeth Platonovna (Stepanova, in the first marriage Schlitter).