Sattar Bahlulzade is the founder of modern Azerbaijani landscape painting. He began his professional education at the National Art Institute in Baku (1927–1931). In 1933, he went to Moscow to continue his education in the Drawing Department at the Moscow Fine Arts Institute. There he studied in the studio of the Russian painter V. A. Favorsky. During the summer workshops in Crimea, Russian painter G. Shegal saw some of Sattar's sketches and suggested that he study at the Institute's Painting Department, which he did.