The study analyzes the story “Reminder” (1979) by the Leningrad writer Enna Alennik, which had not previously been included in literary discourse. In particular, the paper examines the image of a minor character, the artist Usto Modan. The relevance of the presented material is related to the attention in modern culture to the prototype of this image, the real artist of the 20th century Usto Mumin (1897-1957). In the 21st century documentaries are being made, plays are being staged, studies and books are being written about him. The purpose of the article is to show, on the basis of the biographical method and receptive aesthetics, how the image of the artist is constructed in the story by Enna Alennik. The details and context of the image, psychological and ethical features of the portrait of the artist are highlighted. The uniqueness of the proposed material lies in the fact that the analyzed context of the story “Reminder” does not contain an apologetic discourse about the artist, rather, the opposite. Such an unusual view of the artist, whose paintings are exhibited in the largest museum collections, expands the idea not only of the creative personality depicted in the literary text, but also of the real artist, thereby loosening the mythological buildings and making the artist “out of flesh and blood”.