The artist Fyodor Semenov-Amursky was born in Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur. In 1920–1925, he studied at the Blagoveshchensk Art and Industrial College and worked as a freelance illustrator for the Blagoveshchensk regional newspapers Amurskaya Pravda and Molodaya Gvardiya. He also designed stage decorations at the local city theater. In 1925, as one of the most capable students, he was sent to Moscow to study at VKhUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Studios). Among his teachers were Peter Miturich, Vladimir Favorsky, Peter Lvov and others. Soon after graduating from the educational institution, the artist declared himself as an established master. In 1933, he became a member of the graphics section of the Moscow Union of Artists. In 1946, Semenov-Amursky was expelled from the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists for formalism in art.

Fyodor Vasilyevich worked as a graphic artist in various publishing houses. In official art, Semenov-Amursky was on the periphery until the 1980s. His first solo exhibition took place only in 1967 at the Institute of Physical Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His second and last lifetime exhibition was in 1976 at the Central House of Art Workers. On July 21, 1980, the artist died in Moscow. His widow Elizaveta Ismailovna Eliseeva became the keeper of Semenov-Amursky’s creative heritage.

Art historians note that Semenov-Amursky’s painting was influenced not only by contemporaries and immediate predecessors, but also by such European masters as Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh. He tried to find the universal origins of art, its fundamental principle, to understand and rethink the means of expression. Fyodor Vasilyevich turned to naive folk art, the culture of Byzantium and Ancient Egypt, and paid great attention to children’s drawings, which, as he believed, preserved primitive purity.

The painting “Philosophical Dispute” from the collection of the Voronezh Regional Art Museum named after Ivan Kramskoy is painted in oil on paper. After being expelled from the Union of Artists, Semenov-Amursky experienced a constant shortage of funds. Perhaps it was a need that forced him to use primed paper: canvas was too expensive.