He also worked with his maternal grandfather, a local icon painter named Ivan Babin.

[1] He remained there for six years and was awarded a gold medal for his painting of Sophia of Lithuania at the wedding of her son, Vasily the Blind.

[2] Later, thanks to a stipend from the Academy, he was able to study in Europe, especially Rome, where he copied the Old Masters, and won a gold medal at the International Exposition in Paris in 1867.

[2] The following year, he created decorations on themes from Russian folk poetry in the palace of Grand Duke Vladimir.

[2] After his health began to fail, he presented many of his paintings, and some by his late brother Pyotr, to the "Scientific Industrial Museum" in Perm, towards the goal of creating a separate art department there.