In 1873 he received the title of Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for his painting "Christ and a Sinner", based on a verse "Sinner" written by Aleksey Tolstoy. In 1878 he received the French National Order of the Legion of Honour and a gold medal at the Paris World's Fair for the painting "Flower Vase". In 1876–1879 Siemiradzki worked on frescoes for the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (Moscow) among his other large-scale projects. In 1879 he offered one of his best-known works, the enormous "Pochodnie Nerona" (Nero's torches), painted around 1876, to the newly formed Polish National Museum. The artwork is on display at the Siemiradzki Room of the Sukiennice Museum in the Kraków Old Town, the most popular branch of the museum. Around 1893 Siemiradzki worked on two large paintings for the State Historical Museum (Moscow) and in 1894 produced his monumental curtain for the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków.