Bogolyubov was born in the Pomeranie village of Novgorod Governorate. His father was retired colonel Pyotr Gavriilovich Bogolyubov. Bogolyubov's maternal grandfather was the philosopher and social critic Alexander Radishchev.[2]
In 1841, Bogolyubov graduated from military school, serving in the Imperial Russian Navy and travelling with the fleet to many countries. In 1849, he started to attend classes of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, where he studied under Maxim Vorobiev. The young painter was greatly influenced by Ivan Ayvazovsky (Aivazovsky). In 1853, he finished the Academy with a major Gold medal. He retired as a navy officer and was appointed an artist to the Navy headquarters.
Bogolyubov returned to Russia in 1860. He exhibited his works in the Academy and received the title of professor. For some time, he taught in the Academy. In the 1860s, he traveled along the Volga. His paintings lost all traces of Romanticism, replacing that element with staunch realism of the natural. In 1871 he was elected to the Imperial Academy of Arts.
From 1870, he became close to the Wanderers art movement, participated in all their exhibitions. He became a member of their board. Much older than most of the other members of the movement, he had reservations on their social ideas. In 1873, Bogolyubov left the Academy in solidarity with his fellow Itinerants. He even tried to create an alternative Russian Academy of Arts in Rome.[2]
In 1885, Bogolyubov opened an art museum in Saratov, the Radischev Art Museum, named after his grandfather. It was opened to the general public seven years earlier than the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and fifteen years earlier than the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.[3] The naming of the museum after the "first Russian revolutionary", Alexander Radishchev, was a direct challenge to the authorities: Bogolyubov had to endure a legal battle to get permission.
Bogolyubov died on 3 February 1896 in Paris. He left all his money and capital (around 200 thousand Russian rubles (approximately US$6 million)) to the museum and its painting school.[2] The school was opened after Bogolyubov's death and named Bogolyubov's Painting School (Боголюбовское Рисовальное Училище).[2] Among painters who attended Bogolyubov's School were such important modernist painters as Victor Borisov-Musatov, Alexei Karev and Pavel Kuznetsov.
^"The Peredvizhniki appreciated Bogolyubov's professionalism and the realistic principles of his work, but disagreed with him in defining priorities in art. Nevertheless, the "neutral" character of landscape allowed such truthful observers of nature as Bogolyubov to coexist in the association."[1]
^Ilyina, I.A.; Devyataykina, N.I. (2019). "A.P. Bogolyubov and Association of travelling art exhibitions: features of interactions and their importance for development of the Russian landscape painting school". Культурная жизнь Юга России. Теория и история искусства. 1 (72). Saratov: 16.
^Posokhina, Marina V. (2023). "A. Bogolyubov and I. Aivazovsky. An issue of creative and personal relationships". RSUH Bulletin. "Philosophy. Sociology. Art Studies" (2). Saint Petersburg: 131–132. doi:10.28995/2073-6401-2023-2-127-140.
Kozhevnikov, Grigory I. (1962). "Алексей Петрович Боголюбов". In Leonov, Alexei I. (ed.). Русское искусство. Очерки о жизни и творчестве художников. Вторая половина XIX века (in Russian). Vol. 1. Moscow: Iskusstvo. pp. 421–444. OCLC71538004.
Ogaryova, Nonna V. (1988). Летопись жизни и деятельности художника А. П. Боголюбова (in Russian). Saratov: Saratov State University. ISBN5-292-00098-1. OCLC165362450.