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Les
Alyscamps, Arles
Oil on Canvas
1888: 35 7/8" x 28 3/8 "
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
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This painting was made when Gauguin
shared a studio with Van Gogh in the South of France in Arles.
Gauguin arrived in October, 1888 to join Van Gogh where they lived,
ate, and worked together for two months. The time spent together
had an intensity that Van Gogh described as 'excessively electric,'
as they debated aesthetics and sought to refine their styles but
maintain their individual identities. Van Gogh, who painted very
rapidly, applying thick coats of paint, preferred working from
models or directly from nature. Gauguin, on the other hand, preferred
to work from memory, building up thin layers of color in a slow
process.
The two artists
painted some identical subjects to compare their work with each
other. They chose the site of Alyscamps, an ancient Roman cemetery,
to both paint and compare. Gauguin's work is more abstract, with
flaming colors and the three women in the painting whom he called,
'the three graces.' Van Gogh's work was almost 'entirely yellow.'
Both artists made colorful, original masterpieces of the subject.
The combined genius of the two artists ended in tragedy, as the
artists began to fight with each other, ending in a fight in late
December when Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a knife. In despair,
Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear and Gauguin fled, returning
to Paris.
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