Les Alyscamps

Van Gogh painted this at the end of October 1888, in the few days after Paul Gauguin finally arrived in Arles to live and work alongside him. It shows the Alyscamps, an old Roman burial road just outside town, lined with poplars going gold and stone coffins pushed to the sides. The two men went out and painted there together over about four days, right before heavy autumn rains shut them indoors. That shared moment matters, because the household they were starting would fall apart in a quarrel within two months. Here, though, it is still ahead of them. The leaves come down in thick strokes of orange and yellow, and small figures walk the avenue under the trees.