“When he painted my portrait, he did not ask the model to wear the rich clothing that he dressed him in. His imagination preceded what he saw, and the ordinary garment was instantly transformed into a heavy iridescent, colored and illuminated by his creative fancy. This portrait, a large format, was painted in just four sittings. And the cardboard on which he drew was not placed on an easel, but rested on the back of an ordinary chair.“
Anna Kamenova (1968)
„I was buried – pieces of lime and stones had trapped me, my head was trapped, my face was buried. I couldn’t breathe. I felt that I was taking my last breath… I don’t know how I found the strength to dig myself out. I shrugged off the accumulated dirt and freed my right hand (laying over my eyes), brushed the dirt from my face and looked around. He was lying next to me with pieces of lime on his face. I tried to take them away, he moved and stood up. There was a wound on his forehead. He helped me dig out and we looked across. Only my father was alive. My mother had fallen asleep in the chair. My sister – flattened by the entrance to the room. Sasha – lifeless on the floor. Pepo was nowhere to be seen. He had disappeared into the rubble.”
Anna Kamenova, „The Bombardment of January 10, 1944“