 He was disappointed at the teaching there and returned to Moscow, only to find Perov on his deathbed, so he took lessons from Alexei Savrasov.After a brief stay in Ufa, where he met his future wife, Maria, he returned to Moscow and studied with Vladimir Makovsky.While creating a series of historical paintings, he supported himself doing illustrations for magazines and books published by , including a collection of fairy tales by Pushkin.