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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Villa Fragonard, built at the end of the seventeenth century in Grasse, is a typical Provencal bastide, originally built for Madame de Rogon. It then passes into the hands of local families like the Villeneuve Esclapon and the Durand de Sartoux, before being acquired by Alexandre Maubert, trading in perfumery and figure of the Enlightenment. In 1790 he welcomed his cousin, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, who fled Paris after his daughter's death and revolutionary unrest. During his stay, Fragonard decorates the stairwell with a grey fresco with masonic and revolutionary symbols, and installs in the living room his paintings Les Progrès de l'Amour, originally intended for Madame du Barry.

The original decor of the show, including copies of the Games of Love, remained in place until 1898, when the works were sold by Louis-Michel Malvillan, Maubert's great grandson. In 1977, the town of Grasse acquired the villa and created a museum dedicated to Fragonard and his family, exhibiting paintings, personal memories (such as his armchair or his box of colours) and works by his sister-in-law Marguerite Gérard. The stairwell, listed as a historical monument in 1957, and the rest of the villa, registered in 1989, bear witness to this artistic and architectural heritage.

The villa, located at Fragonard Boulevard in the historic heart of Grasse, also illustrates the social evolution of the region: first aristocratic residence, it becomes a bourgeois place linked to the perfume trade, before turning into a cultural space. Its terraced garden and interior decorations, such as the copies of the Games of Love made in 1896 by Auguste La Brély, underline its role in preserving the heritage of the country. Since 2002, the museum has enjoyed the label Musée de France, consolidating its heritage vocation.

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