Les Alyscamps

In late October 1888 Gauguin came to Arles to live and paint with Van Gogh in the Yellow House, and for a few weeks the two worked in a kind of daily lockstep, walking, eating and painting the same views together. One of the places they went was Les Alyscamps, an avenue on the edge of town lined with poplars and rows of Roman stone coffins, a burial ground so old it was famous back in the Middle Ages. Van Gogh made four canvases there in those days, this tall view among them, the poplars turning and the autumn leaves coming down. They painted side by side at the spot over just a few days at the end of the month, until heavy rain drove them indoors. Within two months the friendship had broken apart and Van Gogh had cut off part of his own ear.