Nikolai Alexeyev was born to a commoner’s family in Gorodishche, a city in the Penza Governorate, in 1813. At the age of seven, he was sent to Alexander Stupin’s Arzamas School of Painting, where he was trained till 1829.

 
At 16, Nikolai Alexeyev set off to St. Petersburg to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1834, he completed his training and came back to Arzamas to become headmaster of art classes. The association between Alexander Stupin, the school founder and principal, and Alexeyev was personal as well as professional: the young artist was married to Stupin’s daughter Klavdia. Some time later, Stupin delegated training supervision at the school to his son-in-law. 

In 1839, Nikolai Alexeyev, already as a training superviser, painted Stupin and His Students, for which he was granted the title of academician. Later, he was invited to sit on the commission for the construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. He painted murals inside the cathedral and on the attic, a decorative wall over the cornice.

The boy in the portrait is about eight years of age. He has a high forehead, dark eyes, and short fair hair. He is wearing a dark green waistcoat with five buttons, a beige-coloured shirt with a light shirt front. His left hand is down along the body, the right hand holds a little dog against his chest. On display at the Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg, there is a mounted dog, a little pet of English breed, which looks like the dog in Alexeyev’s picture. Its name was Lisette, the favourite dog of Peter I. After it died, the king ordered a taxidermy mount and engraved an inscription on the dog collar: “I don”t die for fidelity”.