Nikolai Nikolaevich Sapunov studied in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the outstaning artists Konstantin Korovin, Isaac Levitan, and Valentin Serov, as well as in St. Petersburg Academy of Arts under Alexander Kiselyov (1904 — 1911).
 

Nikolai Sapunov started work as a stage designer in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He gained fame with the premiere of the Balaganchik play (1906) based on Alexander Blok’s poem. He created the majolica mosaic with a falcon image in M. V. Sokol’s guest house (designed by the architect Ivan Mashkov in 1904) in the Kuznetsky Most Street.
 

The artist exhibited his early works in May — June, 1904 at the Scarlet Rose exhibition, the only exhibition of the same-name art group (students of the Moscow School for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture headed by Pavel Kuznetsov and Pyotr Utkin from Saratov). Mikhail Vrubel and Victor Borisov-Musatov were invited as members of honour. Among other members there were Anatoly Arapov, Martiros Sarjan, and Serge Sudeikin, who later became famous.
 

Nikolai Sapunov was lost while boating in Terijoki; the overloaded boat turned over, and the artist got drowned, whereas the other passengers were rescued by a vessel that came in time for them).