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. It was one of the first works that van Gogh painted following the arrival there of his friend and mentor Paul Gauguin. The two artists painted some identical subjects to compare their work with each other and chose the site of the Alyscamps to paint and compare. They produced several works, including this painting, van Gogh's Falling Autumn Leaves (Les Alyscamps) and Gauguin's Alyscamps. The painting was last auctioned in November 2003, selling for $11,767,500 at an auction in New York despite predictions that it might fetch up to $14 million 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... full article at wikipedia