After his father received his freedom, they moved to Saint Petersburg and entered the employ of Alexander Golitsyn, who would later be a government minister.

[2] In 1843, he was named an "Academician" and went to Moscow, where he became a teacher at the Alexandrov Military Institute [ru] and worked as an icon painter.

Beginning in 1846, he also gave classes at the Moscow Palace Architectural School [ru], but soon returned to Saint Petersburg and began doing portraits.

[2] In 1849, his paintings of General Pyotr Karlovich Lomnovsky (1798-1860) and the opera singer, Osip Petrov, established his reputation in that field.

[1] In 1856, on the recommendation of Feodor Pryanishnikov, he began working at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as a senior Professor of painting and had many notable students there; including Vasily Perov, Illarion Pryanishnikov and Vasili Pukirev.