When Chagall arrived in the United States in 1941, he managed to bring with him most of the paintings he was working on. They received their definitive form during his stay abroad, creating an interweaving of references and messages over the time. When Chagall first started to paint this great red horse in 1937, it might have symbolized the fury engulfing the world on the dawn of the war; in 1943, it could have taken a more optimistic note, representing the hope of a new beginning. The rooster in the bottom right corner seems to validate this analysis: along the color red, it was a figure commonly used by Chagall as a symbol of solar forces and liveliness, quite fitting with this horse full of wild vitality, seemingly ready to run. The wide blue sky, with its moon reduced to a crescent at the horizon and its birds soaring high, reinforces the feeling of relief that comes with the dawn of a new day.