After graduating from the Astrakhan Art School at the age of 19, Ivan Silych Goryushkin-Sorokopudov moved to St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. It was there that he met Pavel Yakovlevich Pyasetsky, Doctor of Medicine, in the 1880s. The two became friends.

The Soviet and Russian art critic Yuri Ivanovich Nekhoroshev wrote about this meeting,

It was Pavel Pyasetsky who introduced Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov to the family of the railway engineer Nikolay Pavlovich Petrov. Throughout his life, the young artist received help from various people. At first, the Saratov merchant Sorokopudov took care of the boy who had become an orphan. Then, the Astrakhan artist Pavel Alekseyevich Vlasov taught him painting. Later, the St. Petersburg military engineer Nikolay Pavlovich Petrov provided him with great moral and financial support.

The driving force behind the artist’s work was his love for people and his careful attitude towards each individual. This was manifested in the portraits of his contemporaries. While he hardly ever worked on commission, Ivan Goryushkin-Sorokopudov created a vast gallery of the images of his friends and colleagues.

In this portrait, he depicted the engineer Nikolay Petrov, an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences. The composition is simple and devoid of any story. The artist focused on capturing the scientist’s inner world rather than the external details. He paid a lot of attention to the general’s face, emphasizing his straightforward and firm character.

This portrait was created as a token of gratitude and a gift for the wife of Nikolay Pavlovich Petrov, Yelena Dmitriyevna. This is evident from the inscription on the painting, “To deeply respected Yelena Dmitriyevna Petrova, on July 8, 1898. Goryushkin-Sorokopudov”.