Les Alyscamps is an oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin. It was created in 1888 in the post-impressionism style and landscape genre in the Breton period at Arles-sur-tech, France. The piece portrays autumnal prospects in the Alyscamps; an antique Roman necropolis in Arles lined with stone sarcophagi and poplars.
The roman necropolis was sanctified by the Arles' first bishop, saint Trophime, an entombment land for Christians in the 3rd century. In the 19th century, only avenues of the cypresses and a few empty sarcophagi remained of the site, which provided it with a gloomy reflective air. Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles in October 1888 after his friend Vincent van Gogh sent him a work invitation. The two painters had been in contact for some months, documenting their efforts to create a non-naturalist landscape. Les alyscamps painting with its blazing brisk colours is most likely one of Gauguin's initial paintings in Arles. Paul eliminated historical mentions almost completely, leaving just the arched tower and a fraction of the edifice of the St Honorat chimeric basilica erected on the plot’s locale.
There are no sarcophagi in a display, just the grounds, woods, and inland waterway where three persons are strolling, two ladies in Arlesiennes’ dressing and a man. Paul, who did not exacting find Arlesiennes eye-catching, paradoxically named his canvas terrain. Through its put-together masses and marking, this work of art is a feature of Paul Gauguin's synthetism.
