Reproduction of the painting 'portrait of the futurist poet mykhailo semenko (anatol...

The artist Anatol Petrytsky and the futurist poet Mykhailo Semenko were friends and together provoked the artistic life in the then capital - Kharkiv. In the portrait, the artist looks at his character through a cafe window. He seemed to catch a glimpse of a moment in the life of the writer and go on, preserving this memory.

During the 1927-1930s, Petritsky painted a series (about 150) of portraits of Ukrainian artists: writers Yuri Yanovsky, Maxim Rylsky, Mykola Khvylovy, artists of the Les Kurbas Theater "Berezol", as well as artists, including Ivan Padalka. Petritsky knew everyone personally. Together with many heroes of the paintings, Petritsky lived in the Slovo House in Kharkiv. It was a large and diverse environment of writers and artists, essentially the color of the revival of Ukrainian culture in one house. Residents of forty apartments out of sixty-six were repressed. Most of the portraits of Petritsky's hand were destroyed. Semenko was shot for "attempting to organize a terrorist act against Kosior, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine."