Falling Autumn Leaves

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Falling Autumn Leaves
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Oil on canvas
73 × 92 cm
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo


Falling Autumn Leaves
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Oil on canvas
72 × 91 cm
Private collection

Main article: Vincent van Gogh

Fall of Leaves (original French title: Chûte de feuilles), or Falling Autumn Leaves. is a pair of paintings (in French pendants, i. e. counterparts) by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh executed during the two months he shared his studio in Arles with his friend and mentor Paul Gauguin, as well as the subjects they chose.

Executed in late October 1888, this pair depicts autumnal scenes of people walking through the allee of Alyscamps, an ancient Roman necropolis in Arles which is lined with poplars and stone sarcophagi. In his first pair of studies done at the spot (d'après nature) Van Gogh placed his easel in the midst of the Roman street, while his second pair suggests a point of view at the top of the southern embankment of the channel accompanying the alley - from a point of view similar to Gauguin's painting. But this point of view is highly imaginary, and the fact that Tralbaut's photographs^[1] taken on the spot failed to prove the photographism, definitely fixed the essentials: This pair of paintings - as well as Gauguin's version derived from this site - were most probably executed in the studio at Place Lamartine.