The painting ‘Night Scene’ belongs to the series painted after the sudden death of his wife Bella, which put him through tremendous grief. He painted Bella flying in a white winding sheet on a flame-colored horse that is holding a menorah in its hooves. This horse, a symbol of untamed nature, whisks through the sky above Pokrovskaya Street in Vitebsk, where the artist and Bella lived after their wedding.

The wild horse brings Bella to the past and into the world of memories. On the winding sheet, Chagall painted his profile looking in the opposite direction. This is how the artist said goodbye to Bella. The rooster, from which the burning tree grows, symbolizes the author’s lamenting soul.