Brother of Victor Mikhailovich, Vasnetsov did not study Art but started to work in his brother's studio. Living in St Petersburg from 1872 to 1875 he took the advice of the painters V.D. Polenov and I.E.Repin. He rapidly developed an interest for early Russian architecture which can be seen in his paintings from the late 90's which try to recreate views of Moscow and its outskirts during the Middle Ages. Apart from painting, he wrote a large number of articles on history, archeology, architecture and literature.