Andrey Borisovich Yumashev was a test pilot, Air Force Major General, Hero of the Soviet Union and an artist by vocation. As a young man he attended courses at the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in Saint Petersburg and dreamed of becoming an architect. His fate was changed by the revolution: at 16, Andrey joined the army, participated in the Russian Civil War, graduated from two flying schools. At 23, Yumashev designed the Yu-1 glider and soon set two all-Union records.

All that time, Andrey Yumashev never parted with his pencil and notebook. Before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, he took painting lessons from Robert Falk, studying composition and the interpretation of nature. At the end of 1941, Yumashev flew to Moscow from the front for a short while and came into the workshop at 10 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. Pyotr Konchalovsky asked the heroic pilot to pose in his flight uniform for a large portrait. The artist wanted to raise the patriotic morale of the people by depicting a handsome, stately combat pilot with awards on his chest. The portrait is now in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.