[1] Van Gogh and Gauguin visited an ancient Roman necropolis, Les Alyscamps(the Elysian Fields), which had been built outside the city walls and stood a few hundred metres from the centre of Arles.

The city relocated some of the sarcophagi in a long alley lined with benches and poplar trees that led to a Romanesque chapel which became known as the Allée des Tombeaux.

[4] During a period of bad weather van Gogh worked on a second pair of "Les Alyscamps" paintings, which were taken from a vantage point above the lane and looking through the poplar trees, made in the studio.

To Émile Bernard, van Gogh described the collaborative process as a pooling of thoughts and techniques where each artist creates their own unique work that is different, yet complements one another.

Van Gogh believed that his pair of paintings Falling Autumn Leaves was just such a collaborative effort influenced by his own ideas as well as those of Gauguin and Bernard.

To his sister, Vincent wrote of the selection and placement of colors "which cause each other to shine brilliantly, which form a couple, which completes each other like man and woman.