 In 1843, he was named an "Academician" and went to Moscow, where he became a teacher at the and worked as an icon painter.Beginning in 1846, he also gave classes at the , but soon returned to Saint Petersburg and began doing portraits.In 1849, his paintings of General Pyotr Karlovich Lomnovsky (1798-1860) and the opera singer, Osip Petrov, established his reputation in that field.