Fragonard

Fragonard is a French perfumery founded in 1926 in Grasse by former Parisian notary Eugène Fuchs. He purchased existing Grasse perfumeries, including Cresp-Martinenq and Muraour, and established Parfumerie Fragonard in an 18th century tannery that had been converted into a perfume factory. Fuchs chose the name Fragonard as a tribute to Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), the painter born in Grasse and son of a local perfumer and glove maker, explicitly linking the company to the town’s perfume heritage and 18th century arts.

From the outset, Fuchs focused on selling directly to tourists visiting the French Riviera, an approach highlighted by the brand’s own museum materials. Over the decades Fragonard remained family owned, passing to Fuchs’s son Georges and son-in-law François Costa in 1929, then to grandson Jean-François Costa, and today to his daughters Agnès, Françoise and Anne, who hold key roles in the company. The brand has expanded from a small artisan operation distilling local flowers into concentrates and essential oils to a group with three factories, six museums and over twenty boutiques, as outlined on its official site.

Fragonard is also known for its cultural initiatives. In 1947 the company began building a collection of perfume-related objects, which culminated in the opening of the first Perfume Museum in Grasse in 1975 and subsequent museums in Paris and Grasse dedicated to perfume, costume and the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. During the Second World War, glass shortages led the house to adopt golden aluminum canisters for its perfumes; these light-protective containers, still used for many of its fragrances today, have become a practical visual signature closely associated with the brand.