According to art historian Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov, in Evening Bells, Levitan managed "to create an impression of image commonality and unity, harmony of parts as a whole".

This canvas is "one of the most musical and perfect in its artistic structure of Levitan's works", according to art historian Vladimir Petrov.

He writes that "despite the motif's similarity to Quiet Abode, Evening Bells is nevertheless devoid of secondary character, has its own, unique charm".

Two years later, while in Plyos, Levitan visited Yuryevets in search of new motifs for paintings and came across a small monastery, which rekindled his desire to create such a landscape.

According to Sofia Prorokova, the author of Levitan's biography, the name Evening Bells could be associated with the song of the same name by composer Alexander Alyabiev on words by poet Ivan Kozlov.

[11] Evening Bells was sent to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts in December 1892 for the Russian section of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago,[12] where it was exhibited under the title A Convent on the Eve of a Holiday.

[17] Evening Bells was shown at the "1000th Anniversary of Russian Artistic Culture" exhibition in Moscow, Hanover, and Wiesbaden in 1988.

[20] The monastery is surrounded by an autumnal forest, with clouds drifting across the sky, all reflected in the still flowing river's mirror-like surface.

[21] A high pre-sunset sky, clean and brightly reflected in the waters plays an important role in the composition of the image.

[26] According to Fedorov-Davydov: "The greater spatiality of Evening Bells is striking, and it is reflected in the breadth and depth of the space of the new landscape and the diagonal dynamic asymmetry of the composition".

[26] When discussing the direction of Levitan's work in the late 1880s–early 1890s, Fedorov-Davydov noted that the constant search for "more and more new generalising images" was based on reflection.

Despite the fact that the painting Evening Bells is similar to the motif of Quiet Abode, Petrov noted that it is "nevertheless devoid of secondary character, has its own, unique charm".