Nikolay Ivanovich Kostrov was born in the village of Vasilyeskoye into the family of a priest. He received his primary education in a theological seminary. After that, he briefly attended Kazan University. In 1922, Nikolay entered the Petrograd Academy of Arts, where he signed up for the workshop on spatial realism led by Professor Mikhail Vasilyevich Matyushin.

It was during his studies at the Academy of Arts that Nikolay Kostrov created this painting called “Cabbage”. At that time, he had just begun to take part in exhibitions and worked mainly as a painter.

Mikhail Matyushin noted,

Mikhail Matyushin’s principle was the harmony between man and nature. He aspired “to live the life of nature itself, to participate in it, ” hence his serious study of Impressionism and the use of Impressionist techniques.

After graduating from the Academy, Nikolay Kostrov served for three years on the Komsomolets ship in Kronstadt. His works from the “Fleet” series were exhibited at the 1930 exhibition of the Collective of Extended Observation.

In 1932, he became a member of the Union of Artists and began going on creative trips to Kazakhstan, the White Sea, the Barents Sea, and Ukraine. After the Great Patriotic War, he continued his creative trips, visiting Kirov Oblast (1958), Armenia (1961), Norway and the Danube River (1963–1964), Vologda Oblast (1971), Ukraine (1972), and Krasnodar Krai (1973). Each trip inspired a large series of works.