After a period of apprenticeship, a local priest who liked his work suggested that he create a painting of Peter the Great discovering the artist, Andrey Matveyev, for an upcoming visit by Tsar Nicholas I.

[2] This painting was presented to the Tsar, who was sufficiently impressed to issue an order that Sorokin should study at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.

Two years later, his painting of the folk hero, Ian Usmovets, won him a gold medal and a stipend to study abroad.

In 1859, he returned home and was appointed a teacher at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he remained until his death.

Later, he worked at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, where he also created an iconostasis and completed some images that had been left unfinished by Fyodor Bruni.