Organized around three essays, the principal narrative essay is written by Susan Goodman, the Curator at the Jewish Museum, responsible for coordinating the exhibition. This essay takes the form of a story-line narrative, presenting nearly all the works contained in the exhibition. Two other short essays, one by Evgenija Petrova and the other by Dr. Aleksandra Shatskikh, will trace respectively the shifting trajectory of Chagall's work in Soviet and Russian art history, and the interrelation and impact of Pen and Chagall upon each other; the contribution of each artist to the history of Russian art as well as their sources in Russian and Jewish art.

While the years spent in Paris can be credited as the key formative influence on Chagall's mature work, the years in Russia were crucial to helping build on, and to define, the ideas and influences of the Paris years. Together they established those themes and motifs to which Chagall would repeatedly return throughout his long career: Love, Marriage, The War, Jewish Folklore, and The Jewish Theatre.