Trompe l’Oeil in Grasse
- Tom Richardson
- Jun 13, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Trompe l’Oeil (‘tricking the eye') on walls is an art perhaps most closely associated with Liguria in Italy, where it is almost ubiquitous, but there is quite a lot of it on our side of border. By definition, though, it’s easy to miss.
I know of seven in Grasse. In pride of place must be the ‘Capital du Parfum’ image from 2013, which you see on bd Fragonard (no. 13) as it climbs towards Place Honoré Cresp: it has the major benefit of taking the eye off the appalling sixties Post Office building next to it.
It’s well worth a closer look, because the characters at the ‘windows’ are all identified in the small ‘plaque’ at the bottom left, and they include Antoine and Leon Chiris, from one of Grasse’s great perfume families (see also another of my blogs here).
An image of similar size, made in 2019, serves as a welcome to the town. As you enter central Grasse, opposite the Molinard perfumery on the Route Napoleon (aka Victor Hugo), it’s on the side of an apartment block facing directly down the road. Unfortunately, it’s a little faded now and it’s a pity that two large bushes (which in this photo look as if they're part of the image itself!) have been allowed to hide part of it.
Even larger, and in a way more impressive because it’s in a most unpromising spot, is this one down by the station off avenue Pierre Sémard. It’s very easy to miss because it disguises very effectively a big concrete retaining wall although unfortunately it’s beginning to deteriorate somewhat, although it was only created in 2019: perhaps it’s too vulnerable to water flowing from the concrete above.
You can see two other large images at either end of the bd Jeu du Ballon. The one on the left below is on the side of the Bar Celtic, opposite place Honoré-Cresp, decorating what would otherwise be a pretty blank wall. The other is one which I have always tended to miss, mainly because it’s on the side of a building at the western end of the avenue Thiers from which I’m always driving away, not towards.
The image rises above a large fountain known as La Buanderie ('the laundry') which was close to one of the town's historic lavoirs. It was built in 1816 and refurbished in 2018. The town commissioned the trompe l'oeil above it to decorate an otherwise blank wall.
Called the ‘La Symphonie du Jasmin, L’Or Blanc de Grasse’ (“symphony of jasmine, the white gold of Grasse”), the image is, very appropriately for Grasse, a giant cascade of jasmine.
The other two images are more modest. Below Cours Honoré Cresp, next to the old top station of the funicular, there are some 'stairs to nowhere', which no doubt had a function related to the old line.
Rather than remove them, someone decided to disguise their abrupt end with a small trompe l’oeil, which works quite well, I think.
My final image is even smaller, but, if the test of trompe l’oeil is that you don’t notice it, the best! It’s at 10 bd Etienne Caremil, on the one way system going west, and the building was once the Honoré Payan perfumery. There’s a row of real windows, followed some which aren’t, out of one of which a child looks out at you.
I think we owe most of these images (certainly the larger ones) to 7e Sens (“seventh sense”) and Vincent Ducaroy, although not all are signed. You can see some details about 7e Sens here in English, while Vincent Ducaroy also has his own website here.
There's also a big national database of images on a website called, logically enough, Trompe l’Oeil, here, which you might find interesting.
November 2024 addendum
A new image, also down to Vincent Ducaroy, has just been completed, and you really have to look twice to recognise this one, because the windows and shutters look exactly like those round the corner.
The address is 2 avenue Général de Gaulle and it's right opposite the one on the side of Bar Celtic.
Great to see new additions to Grasse's wall art!
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