He tried to maintain a balance between an almost documentary reconstruction of the events depicted and some personal impressions of the most relevant events in France in the mid-to-late 19th century, reflecting it in artistic form.

At the beginning of his career, he saw injustice, was not afraid to depict it in his paintings, and this social message was much more important in those years than any purely technical nuances.

A few years later, this publishing house was closed for "excessive expenditure of public money." Yerko was told: "Draw whatever you want, the main thing is to find at least some buyers." His work resembles a kind of dream, when he simply imagines the necessary images.

He was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts, but Boldini's boring lectures did not attract him much, and so he rarely attended them. The entire high society was gossiping about his affairs, and the artist's personal life was very stormy.

"To make some money, Maksimov painted portraits of local merchants and innkeepers, but he barely earned anything for his work. His art seemed hopelessly outdated, and he refused to acknowledge the trendy new movements in painting."

Later, they began to be called the minor Caravaggisti, putting a derogatory connotation into this nickname. The artists organized a pagan procession in honor of Bacchus and walked so that they horrified all pious Christians.