Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard – Collection Hélène & Jean-François Costa

The Fragonard Museum, nestled in the heart of the old town next to the historic Fragonard factory, is dedicated to Grasse’s most famous son, painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and presents some 15 major works by this great artist.

By inaugurating the Jean-Honoré Fragonard Museum in 2011 in the heart of Grasse’s old town, Maison Fragonard paid a twofold tribute. A tribute to the famous painter, of course—a native of Grasse and the son of a glove maker and perfumer—and a tribute to Jean-François Costa, an art enthusiast and great lover of 18th-century French art who patiently collected his works.

The Fragonard Museum offers visitors a comprehensive overview of the career of the famous painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard: genre paintings, religious works, landscapes, and fanciful portraits, right up to the painting created toward the end of the artist’s career, *The Sacrifice of the Rose*.

Spanning three floors, the museum is divided into permanent and temporary exhibition halls. Carrying on their father’s legacy and thereby contributing to the cultural vitality of the city of Grasse, Agnès and Françoise Costa organize temporary exhibitions each year in the ground-floor and garden-level galleries.
On the first floor, a series of large galleries displays some twenty major works by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, as well as about forty paintings by two other artists from Grasse: Marguerite Gérard, Fragonard’s sister-in-law and disciple, and Jean-Baptiste Mallet. This collection, which constitutes the museum’s permanent exhibition, transcends regional boundaries due to its artistic and historical significance.

JEAN HONORÉ FRAGONARD (1732–1806)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard is one of the most enigmatic figures of the 18th century. When the first critics and art lovers who contributed to his rediscovery in the 19th century imagined his life story, they were tempted to confuse his own life with that of one of his characters. In reality, the life of this son of a glove maker from Grasse—born in 1732 but raised in Paris—resembles a picaresque tale more than that of a young lover of the Italian Commedia. Fragonard possessed one of the most solid artistic educations of his time, as evidenced here by *Le Troupeau* (The Herd), a lovely homage to 17th-century Northern European painting, and *L’Oiseau chéri* (The Beloved Bird), one of his most Rembrandtesque compositions.

MARGUERITE GÉRARD (1761–1837)
The Jean-Honoré Fragonard Museum houses one of the most extensive collections of paintings by Marguerite Gérard ever assembled, offering a comprehensive view of her body of work.
Marguerite Gérard’s life story is closely intertwined with that of Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Following the example of her master Fragonard, she painted various genre scenes and specialized in small-scale portraits. By the end of the 18th century, she had achieved artistic independence and soon won over the Parisian public; her works were found in the collections of all the major collectors.

JEAN-BAPTISTE MALLET (1759–1835)
Born in Grasse in 1759 and trained in Toulon and then in Paris, Jean-Baptiste Mallet remains one of the most enigmatic painters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His solid training in painting enabled him to transition from his early gallant gouaches to much more politically engaged works inspired by the revolutionary political and social climate of the time. He also made a name for himself among art lovers thanks to his paintings in the Anacreontic style, in which he masterfully draws on the classical repertoire and a certain “graceful mythology,” as seen here in *Innocence and Fidelity Bringing Back Love*.

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Free access.

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Phone : 04 93 36 44 65

Email : tourisme@fragonard.com