Born in the village of old believers of Orenburg province. Arriving in Moscow, he entered the newly opened Moscow school of painting and sculpture, which received (1845-1849) very decent training. From 1849 Kabanov continued his studies at the St Petersburg Academy of arts. His leading teacher becomes a famous artist of A. T. Markov, under whose leadership the young Boars achieves first successes: in 1849 and 1851 for the drawings and sketches gets small and large silver medal in 1852, for the painting "the Sermon of St John the Baptist in the desert" — a small gold. In 1853 the picture "Achilles, the student shoot the centaur" brings I. Kabanov major gold medal and the title of class artist and a foreign trip at public expense. In Rome, a pensioner of the Academy of arts works hard, sends written in Petersburg. The picture I. A. Kabanova typical for Russian pensioners in Italy (except, of course, local luminaries of painting) — "Death of Lucretia", "terrace in the vicinity of Rome." Among these canvases were "the Sleeping Bacchante," which earned him the honorary title of academician. In St. Petersburg, I. A. Kabanov wrote in addition to the paintings on mythological subjects a lot of portraits, decorated palaces of St. Petersburg, and also wrote the image of Christ for the City Duma (1866-1867).
