If you've travelled around the Cote d'Azur, you'll certainly have seen the many lutrins (literally 'lecterns') showing reproductions of art by well-known artists from the viewpoints where they were (in some cases supposedly) painted. They were all initiated by the departement of Alpes-Maritime under the banner of La Côte d’Azur des Peintres.
Nice, Antibes and Cannes have many, but Grasse has four of its own. The most eminent artist here is Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), who spent a lot of time in the Riviera but had no particular connection with Grasse - indeed, the painting on his lutrin was originally attributed as being a view of a public garden in Hyères, well over 100km away.
But the other three artists, who, incidentally, do not include Fragonard (he's not known ever to have created any views of Grasse) were closely associated with our town.
Dufy's 'Vue de Grasse'
The original is in Centre Pompidou in Paris. The view is from the place Honoré Cresp where the lutrin stands. Dufy rather adjusted the location of the bandstand and the fountain to suit his composition, but you get the point.
Charles Nègre's 'Quartier des Moulins'
Nègre (1880-1820), a native of Grasse, pioneer of photography as an art-form and most recently commemorated in the new town médiateque, deserves a blog of his own, but his lutrin stands on the boulevard Gambetta, part of the one-way road which runs along what were once the southern walls of the town.
The original can be seen in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Provence, only 300m or so away in rue Mirabeau, but since it's only 20cm x 15cm (although in a much larger frame), and not in a room with the several other Nègres they possess, it's easy to miss.
Unusually, the lutrin is not placed so that you can match it with the same view today - the painting is actually a view from just below the position, looking up the Avenue Font Laugière in around 1860.
The other two artists are much less well-known.
Erwin Sutter's 'Rue de la Fontette'
Sutter (1897-1974) was from Alsace (hence, no doubt, his rather non-French sounding name) but made his home in Grasse and is said to have been a significant figure in the town's artistic and cultural life in the fifties and sixties. His lutrin is exactly located to show its subject, in the Rue de la Fontette, close to the new médiatheque.
According to the lutrin, this original is also locally accessible - it's said to be in the older town library, the Bibliotheque Municipale in the Villa Saint-Hilaire just above the old town, but I can't locate it, either there or in the new médiatheque, so I'd like to hear where it is.
Yvon Peron's 'Vue de Grasse'
Yvon Péron (1910-1998) was born in Paris. Like so many painters, fascinated by the light of Provence he moved to Grasse in 1950. He taught at, among other schools, Grasse's Collège Fénelon, and lived in the town until his death in 1998.
Like Dufy, he seems to have taken liberties with the view; assuming the lutrin is located correctly (and its rather obscure placement by the car park entrance suggest so), this the closest I can get to his vista: you certainly can't really see the cathedral from where the lutrin is! The original is said to be, like the Nègre painting, in Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Provence, but I can't find it, and the lady on duty recently did not know of Yvon Péron. It would be nice to know where this one is too.