Grasse and the Revolution

In 1789 Grasse was the largest town in eastern Provençe. Its sympathies were mostly royalist and its affairs were controlled locally by an oligarchical group of rich merchants. It housed a disproportionately high number of religious houses and convents and a substantial population of artisans, shopkeepers and other townspeople. It was the time of the revolution in philosophy and political thinking known as the Enlightenment. But there had been a series of bad harvests in the 1780s, both around Grasse and in France generally.

A somewhat apprehensive looking Jean-Joseph Mougins-Roquefort in an image from the state collection at Versailles

The Revolution began when Louis XVI was forced to call the Estates General to Paris in 1789. Its representatives from Grasse, two brothers named Mougins-Roquefort, were drawn from the oligarchs. Enlightenment liberals both, they each became members of the new National Assembly, which nationalised the property of the Catholic Church and made the clergy subject to a new constitution. It also called local elections with a wider but still restricted franchise.

In Grasse, the initial effect seems to have been mostly on religion. The election produced a new mayor, still from the ranks of the oligarchs, who also rushed to buy up the religious buildings of the town, from which their occupants were summarily ejected. But the bishopric of Grasse was suppressed (our cathedral has technically not held that status ever since) and the poor of the town lost access to the welfare services hitherto provided by the convents. Priests not adhering to the new constitution, called the ‘insermentés’ (‘unsworn’), were persecuted.

The Revolutionary wars

After the initial shock, the greatest impact of the Revolution on Grasse, certainly during the middle years, was created by its proximity to France’s south-eastern border. The revolutionaries were united on the need to export the Revolution to neighbouring countries. In 1792, war was declared between France and a 'First Coalition' of monarchies, led by Austria and Prussia.

A revolutionary 'Army of the Var' invaded the county of Nice, which, at the time, was part of a member of the royalist coalition, the kingdom of Sardinia. The army requisitioned recruits, food, supplies, pack animals, uniforms and boots, gunpowder and even wives from the unfortunate Grassois. Two of the old convents became military hospitals at the town’s expense. Fighting and requisitions continued for two years, until, following a French victory near the village of Saorge in the high Roya valley, a treaty was concluded with Sardinia-Piedmont which ceded Nice to France. Even thereafter, incipient rebellion by discontented occupants of the high mountains, known as the Barbets, and then Napoleon's campaigns in Italy of 1796–1797 continued the pressures on Grasse to support the military.

And at sea, Grasse’s imports and exports were heavily disrupted by the dominance of the Royal Navy, culminating in the fall of the port-fortress of Toulon in August 1793 to royalist rebels supported by the Spanish and British. In December, they were expelled again, largely by the efforts of a young Napoleon Bonaparte, but the French fleet was destroyed by the British during their withdrawal and the Mediterranean shipping on which Grasse depended took years to recover.

A rather dramatic illustration of the destruction of the French fleet, Toulon, 18th December 1793. The artist was Thomas Whitcombe.

Local politics under the Revolution

In Grasse, politics became a battle between the oligarchs who had benefited from the sale of church property but otherwise wanted the status quo, and the rest of the townspeople who had gained little from the Revolution. In a legendary meeting held under a fig tree in the Ribes (St Francois) quarter in 1791, a group of shopkeepers, artisans and other workers formed a Société Populaire de Grasse (otherwise the ‘Club de la Figuière’ or ‘Fig Tree Club’).

For most of the years 1791-1799, it was the oligarchs, who in the broadest terms were aligned with the Girondins (in effect the right wing of the revolution) in Paris, who continued to keep power, but there were two periods when the popular party, who were the local equivalent of Paris’ Montagnards (also known later as Jacobins) took over.

Decoration on the wall of a room in the Hotel de Pontèves (the MIP) which is still there today. The inscription says 'Men are equal before the Law'.

The Reign of Terror

For twelve months from mid-1793, during the Reign of Terror in Paris, Grasse was subjected to its own version under a Montagnard mayor named Pierre Girard cadet. Like Lenin and Stalin much later, he had a revolutionary pseudonym – ‘Barbette’.

Grasse had become, for a short time, the capital of the newly created Var department. Its administration was in the Hotel de Pontèves (now the main part of the Musée International de la Parfumerie). A guillotine was set up in the Clavecin square and claimed 30 victims, although only one was actually from Grasse, an unfortunate shoemaker by the name of Honore Trabaud.

Modern memorial tablet to the victims of Grasse's guillotine during the Reign of Terror. It is located in the Orange Garden of the MIP. Even a 71 year old nun was among those killed.

Following the fall of Robespierre in July 1794, the Montagnard leaders in Grasse were arrested and from 1795 the oligarchs were back, with some church services allowed.

Some of the massive pillars of the Cathedral, like this one, still show signs of fire damage from 1795

Even so, in September 1795, a fire destroyed most of the contents of the deconsecrated cathedral (it was being used as a warehouse) and damaged some of the pillars.

The second coming of the left

By early 1797, the right had taken full power, the totemic fig tree in the Ribes had been uprooted and burnt and the Tree of Liberty in front of the cathedral cut down. But its success was abruptly halted by a Paris coup in September, named that of Fructidor because of the revolutionary month in which it took place. It was supported by Napoleon Bonaparte and it brought the Montagnards and Barbette temporarily back to power. Due to several assassinations of prominent pro- and anti-Montagnards, the Grassois called the month of the coup 'le Septembre des Égorgeurs’ (‘cut-throat September’).

Living in Grasse during the Revolution

One of the major triggers of the Revolution was poor harvests, and the Grassois were badly affected by a cold winter in 1788/89 after which the town oligarchs brought in wheat, as they had sometimes done before, to relieve potential famine. But the Revolution made life in Grasse much worse through a combination of regime changes, political flux, military exigencies and the removal of the regular (that is, convent-based) clergy.

It's likely that the original blazon over this doorway to this magnificent medieval town house in the Place des Soeurs was obliterated during the Revolution.

One of the town’s major industries, tanning, was almost killed off during the period by a combination of ruinous taxation and the cut-off of supply of raw skins by sea, leaving many workers penniless. By 1802, Grasse was tanning only a tenth of the volume of skins which had been normal before 1790.

Perfumery, which had been a small but fast growing business before the Revolution, equally suffered from the immediate loss of its aristocratic markets, and related businesses such as makers of stills were also hit hard. But since luxury always seems to prevail (and town-life still smelt strong!), from around 1795 demand began to grow again from the new ruling classes, especially in Paris.

Even the town's oil and soap trade was affected, especially by the English naval blockade.

There is no objective means of measuring prosperity at the time, but the town’s population, especially the poor, suffered greatly. As an indicator, the price of bread rose from 2 sous per pound in 1790 to 6-7 sous by 1793 and peaked even more during recurrent supply crises. There was nothing romantic about the Revolution in Grasse!

Surviving signs

Apart from the rooms in the MIP (the old Hotel Pontèves), there are two places locally where you can still easily see symbols of the Revolution.

The great painter, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, who had been court painter to Louis XVI, took refuge in 1790 in his uncle Alexandre Maubert’s house, which is now the Villa Musée Fragonard. Perhaps not entirely willingly (see my blog here), he covered the hallway with symbolic images. You can see two of them below.

The Goddess Minerva on a wall in the hallway of the Villa Fragonard. Figures like Minerva symbolised wise government, Republican virtue and the triumph of the people over tyranny

Revolutionary symbols on another wall. In the middle are the Roman fasces (from which our modern term Fascist comes), symbolising unity through collective power (one rod breaks easily, but not a bundle). The triangle and circles on the right represent reason and scientific progress – key parts of Enlightenment thought. The crossed spears and axes represent struggle and defence.

In 1799, a fountain was installed on the Cours (now the Cours Honoré Cresp) which displays strong revolutionary images. Two of its faces appear below; the other two celebrate 'the prosperity of the state' and 'the defence of the country. Other photos of the fountain are on my post on La Foux here.

(Left) This face of the fountain celebrates the agricultural ‘Riches of the People’. The symbolism includes wheat, grapes, a sickle and a scythe. There’s nothing royal or religious. The carving is probably evoked Roman and republican ideals—order, virtue, and simplicity. (Right) On another face, ‘Les arts perfectionnent la nature’. An Enlightenment idea was that human creativity can refine and elevate the natural world. The symbols include the compass and square of freemasonry and the triangle (trinity) of Revolutionary values: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

The end of the Revolution

The Revolution is normally considered to have been ended by Bonaparte’s ‘Brumaire’ coup of November 1799. In Grasse, it brought the arrest of Barbette and the return of much of the pre-revolutionary status quo - even the Mougins-Roqueforts came back.

Greater stability in government, helped by Napoleon’s ‘concordat’ of 1801 with the Pope, which reduced religious tensions, gradually brought economic recovery to Grasse. The perfumeries expanded strongly, especially after Napoleon became emperor and created a new imperial aristocracy. It seems unlikely that many Grassois regretted the passing of the Revolutionary period, but there is one sign that some did.

Plaque to M J Guidal, rue de l'Oratoire

On the rue de l'Oratoire, the arch leading to the Maison de Patrimoine has a plaque placed by 'Le comite Republicain de la Circonscription de Grasse' ('Republican committee of the Grasse District'). It commemorates the birthplace and execution of one Maximin Guidal. He was a revolutionary general from Grasse who joined a failed plot to overthrow Napoleon in 1812. His group believed that the emperor had betrayed the principles of the Revolution, and this local committee clearly agreed.