The artwork is fairly simple, as the injured soldier lies on a stretcher whilst leaning his head on his hand. His torso is uncovered, suggesting injury in this area. The rest of his clothing is entirely black in tone, as is most of the background behind him. Whilst we remember Chagall most for the brightness of his work, here he captures a more sombre mood in a duotone format, which is partly due to the medium in which he was working. War would inspire many artists because of the raw emotions that it inspired, though most depictions would naturally be in a relatively sad, depressive format, which attempted to broadcast the horrors to the viewer.
Perhaps Picasso's Guernica is the finest example of an artistic depiction of the horrors of war, but there have also been an impressive selection of poems from serving officers, many of whom would later be discovered and respected as talented poets. Emotion has inspired countless artists and even those who tend to concentrate on more positive aspects of humanity cannot avoid covering these more negative themes at some point in their lives. WWI was also so impactful across Europe that it would have been impossible to ignore.
We are not currently aware of who owns this piece, so it is most likely to be in a private collection. Many of Chagall's less famous pieces were snapped up by private collectors and they would all since have risen in value significantly. His most famous artworks would only be available to a select few because of their extraordinary values that would now run into the many millions of pounds, such as with the likes of Dream, Blue Violinist, Adam and Eve and Autumn in the Village. That said, those items will be unlikely to come up for sale anytime soon, which has the added impact of raising valuations even further as the supply of his paintings continues to dry up. The normal people such as ourselves are probably only able to buy Chagall prints instead.