The Russian painter and graphic artist Peter Petrovich Sokolov was known as an animal painter. He was born in 1821 in St. Petersburg into the family of Peter Fedorovich Sokolov, one of the founders and greatest masters of Russian watercolor portraiture, Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Peter was the brother of the artists Pavel and Alexander Sokolov and a nephew of the painter Karl Pavlovich Bryullov.

In the second half of the 1830s, he studied at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Between 1840 and 1843 he was a non-matriculated student at the Imperial Academy of Arts in the class of historical painting. His tutors were the painter Pyotr Vasilievich Basin and the graphic artist Fyodor Antonovich Bruni, who were famous artists of late Russian Classicism of the first half of the 19th century and creators of monumental historical paintings.

In 1855, he was awarded the title of a Free Artist in watercolor portrait painting. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 Peter Sokolov was in the active army as an artist-reporter. He was awarded the Cross of St. George for bravery.

In 1879, the artist published an album that was dedicated to military scenes with a series of monochrome graphics. Among them are the famous works “Removing Bodies in Pleven” and “Dead Road Between Nikopol and Pleven”.

From 1867 to 1895, Peter Petrovich worked a lot in book illustration. He created albums of illustrations for such works as “General Toptygin” and “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares” by Nikolay Alekseevich Nekrasov and “The Power of Darkness” by Leo Tolstoy. In the 1880s and 1890s, he illustrated “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.

The artist displayed his works at exhibitions at the Imperial Academy of Arts in the 1870s, as well as at international exhibitions in Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin and London.

From 1863 to 1879, Pyotr Sokolov was a full member of the St. Petersburg Artists’ Club, and between the 1880s and 1890s he was a member and exhibitor of the Society of Russian Watercolorists.

In 1889, he was awarded a Gold Medal and the Order of the Legion of Honor for his painting “Horse Fair in the town of Lebedyan”, which was presented at his solo exhibition in Paris. It was around the same time that he became an Honorary Member of the Society of French Artists.

In 1893, the Council of the Imperial Academy of Arts awarded him the title of Academician.

Peter Sokolov died in 1899 and was buried in the Kazan Cemetery in St. Petersburg.