The article focuses on A. N. Mokritsky, artist and teacher at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MSPSA), who played a prominent role in the early formative years of Moscow school of arts in the 1850s and 1860s. As a well-educated art lover, Mokritsky taught such masters as V. G. Perov, I. M. Pryanishnikov, K. E. Makovsky, I. I. Shishkin. Notably, he had a particularly great influence on Shishkin that continued long after Shishkin’s move to St. Petersburg. The article shows Mokritsky as a competent and demanding teacher, whose years of hard work were aimed at strengthening the traditions of academic education and transferring the necessary professional knowledge to students. In the debates that engulfed the school teaching milieu from 1857 to 1858, Mokritsky, acting as the main opponent of S. K. Zaryanko, was not hesitant to express his opinion on the methods of teaching painting. By using the example of Mokritsky’s pedagogical views and aesthetic ideals, the author of the article assesses the academic method of teaching art in the late 1850s, as well as the prospects for its further development. In addition, an attempt was made to continue the study of the history of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, thereby deepening the understanding of the difficult period in the formation of the Moscow school of arts.