He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg (from 1887). In 1894, he received the Grand Gold Medal and the title of "Klassnyi Chudozhnik" (Class of Artists), first class. In 1897, he traveled to Paris, where he studied for several months at the Académie Julian. In 1902, he became a member of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka." He became the first director of the School of Fine Arts, which opened in 1904 (a school he had been trying to establish for many years). He organized two major solo exhibitions in St. Petersburg (1915) and Moscow (1916). In his early career, he primarily painted portraits and landscapes. Later, he turned to symbolic paintings of a fantastic and mystical nature.