Les Alyscamps

Les Alyscamps (or 'L'Allée des Alyscamps') is a pair of paintings ("pendants") by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in 1888 in Arles, France, it depicts autumnal scenes in the Alyscamps, an ancient Roman necropolis in Arles which is lined with poplars and stone sarcophagi.

Van Gogh also made another pair of paintings, Falling Autumn Leaves and Paul Gauguin made his own version of Les Alycamps.

Auction

One of the paintings was auctioned in November 2003, selling for $11,767,500 at an auction in New York despite predictions that it might fetch between $12 and $18 million.

Following months of correspondence, Paul Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles in October 1888. Both were intent on depicting a "non-naturalist landscape". The paintings are of the first works that Van Gogh and Gauguin painted following Gauguin's arrival. This lane was known throughout France as a lovers' lane (the women of Arles celebrated for their beauty). The couples depicted in the painting are taking a romantic stroll in the evening and it was this aspect of the scene that especially attracted the artists' attention.

Van Gogh's other Les Alyscamps paintings

Van Gogh made another pair of paintings at Les Alyscamps called Falling Autumn Leaves.

File:Alyscamps van gogh.jpg|Falling Autumn Leaves 1888 Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F486)

File:Van gogh alyscamps other.jpg|Falling Autumn Leaves 1888 Private collection (F487)

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Gauguin's paintings

For his painting of Les Alyscamps, painted on the same day as Van Gogh's, Gauguin chose a different vantage point from Van Gogh, and excluded any reference to ancient sarcophagi.

Image:Paul Gauguin 085.jpg|Paul Gauguin, Les Alyscamps 1888 Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Image:Lane at Alchamps, Arles 1888 Paul Gauguin.jpg|Paul Gauguin, Allée des Alyscamps 1888 Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo

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Les Alyscamps

Auction

Les Alyscamps

Van Gogh's other Les Alyscamps paintings

Gauguin's paintings

See also

References