Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov was born on July 15 (28), 1906 into the family of an icon painter in the Sursko-Litovsky Village of the Yekaterinoslavsky Province of the Russian Empire.

He worked in the Community Centre of Railroad Workers at Grishino station of the Dnepropetrovsk Region (Ukraine).

He got some preparatory training at the workers' faculty of arts in Moscow and entered the Higher Art and Technical Studios (aka VKhUTEMAS), where he studied from 1929 to 1934, in particular, under D. S. Moor.

His painting Arrived for Vacation as a sample of the socialist realism genre was immediately recognized one of the masterpieces of the Soviet painting. The same thing happened with Reshetnikov’s other painting of the same year 1948 — The Soviet Union Generalissimo I.V. Stalin depicting Stalin in his office at work. Both works of art were conferred the Stalin award.

The overall circulation of cards with the reproduction of Fyodor Reshetnikov’s painting Arrived for Vacation (1948) made over 13 million copies. It was more than the number of copies of any other card printed in the Soviet Union.

The painting Arrived for Vacation, as well as the later A Bad Mark Again (1952) became the most popular genre paintings of the Soviet art.

The artist participated in the Arctic expedition by the Chelyuskin steamship.

He was a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts from 1953, and its vice-president from 1974.

Fyodor Pavlovich Reshetnikov died on December 13, 1988 and was laid to rest at the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.
There is Fyodor Reshetnikov National Memorial Museum working in the artist’s homeland - the Sursko-Litovsky village - since 1990.