 His painting "Grandmother's tales" (1867) was shown at a Peredvizhniki exhibition, where it won a prize and was bought by Pavel Tretyakov.In 1872 he was admitted to the Peredvizhniki group, and soon became one of its most prominent and rigorous members.Ilya Yefimovich Repin described Maximov as "the most uncrushable stone in the foundation of "peredvizhnechestvo"".