GRASSINS (Adolphe des), born in 1797, son of M. and Mme. des Grassins; studied law at Paris where he lived in a lavish way. A caller at the Nucingens where he met Charles Grandet. Returned to Saumur in 1819 and vainly courted Eugenie Grandet. Finally he returned to Paris and rejoined his father whose wild life he imitated. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRASSOU (Pierre), born at Fougeres, Brittany, in 1795. Son of a Vendean peasant and militant Royalist. Removing at an early age to Paris he began as clerk to a paint-dealer who was from Mayenne and a distant relative of the Orgemonts. A mistaken idea led him toward art.
His Breton stubbornness led him successively to the studios of Servin, Schinner and Sommervieux. He afterwards studied, but fruitlessly, the works of Granet and Drolling; then he completed his art studies with Duval-Lecamus. Grassou profited nothing by his work with these masters, nor did his acquaintance with Lora or Joseph Bridau assist him. Though he could understand and admire he lacked the creative faculty and the skill in execution. For this reason Grassou, usually called Fougeres by his comrades, obtained their warm support and succeeded in getting admission into the Salon of 1829, for his "Toilet of a Condemned Chouan," a very mediocre painting palpably along the lines of Gerard Dow. The work obtained for him from Charles X. the cross of the Legion of Honor. At last his canvasses found purchasers.
Elie Magus gave him an order for pictures after the Flemish school, which he sold to Vervelle as works of Dow or Teniers. At that time Grassou lived at No. 2 rue de Navarin. He became the son-in-law of Vervelle, in 1832, marrying Virginie Vervelle, the heiress of the family, who brought him a dowry of one hundred thousand francs, as well as country and city property. His determined mediocrity opened the doors of the Academy to him and made him an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1830, and major of a battalion in the National Guard after the riots of May 12. He was adored by the middle classes, becoming their accredited artist. Painted portraits of all the members of the Crevel and Thuillier families, and also of the director of the theatre who preceded Gaudissart. Left many frightful and ridiculous daubs, one of which found its way into Topinard's humble home. [Pierre Grassou. A Bachelor's Establishment. Cousin Betty. The Middle Classes. Cousin Pons.]
GRASSOU (Madame Pierre), born Virginie Vervelle; red-haired and homely; sole heiress of wealthy dealers in cork, on rue Boucherat.
Wife of the preceding whom she married in Paris in 1832. There is a portrait of her painted in this same year before her marriage, which at first was a colorless study by Grassou, but was dexterously retouched by Joseph Bridau. [Pierre Grassou.]
GRAVELOT brothers, lumber-merchants of Paris, who purchased in 1823 the forests of Aigues, the Burgundy estate of General de Montcornet.
[The Peasantry.]
GRAVIER, paymaster-general of the army during the first Empire, and interested at that time in large Spanish affairs with certain commanding officers. Upon the return of the Bourbons he purchased at twenty thousand francs of La Baudraye the office of tax-receiver for Sancerres, which office he still held about 1836. With the Abbe Duret and others he frequented the home of Mme. Dinah de la Baudraye. He was little, fat and common. His court made little way with the baroness, despite his talent and his worldly-wise ways of a bachelor. He sang ballads, told stories, and displayed pseudo-rare autographs. [The Muse of the Department.]
GRAVIER, of Grenoble; head of a family; father-in-law of a notary; chief of division of the prefecture of Isere in 1829. Knew Genestas and recommended to him Dr. Benassis, the mayor of the village of which he himself was one of the benefactors, as the one to attend Adrien Genestas-Renard. [The Country Doctor.]
GRENIER, known as Fleur-de-Genet; deserter from the Sixty-ninth demi-brigade; chauffeur executed in 1809. [The Seamy Side of History.]
GRENOUVILLE, proprietor of a large and splendid notion store in Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, about 1840; a customer of the Bijous, embroiderers also in business at Paris. At this time an ardent admirer of Mlle. Olympe Bijou, former mistress of Baron Hulot and Idamore Chardin. He married her and gave an income to her parents. [Cousin Betty.]
GRENOUVILLE (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Olympe Bijou, about 1824. In the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe she lived in Paris near La Courtille, in rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple. Was a pretty but poor embroiderer surrounded by a numerous and poverty-stricken family when Josepha Mirah obtained for her old Baron Hulot and a shop. Having abandoned Hulot for Idamore Chardin, who left her, Olympe married Grenouville and became a well-known tradeswoman. [Cousin Betty.]
GRENVILLE (Arthur-Ormond, Lord), wealthy Englishman; was being treated at Montpellier for lung trouble when the rupture of the treaty of peace of Amiens confined him to Tours. About 1814 he fell in love with the Marquise Victor d'Aiglemont, whom he afterwards met elsewhere.
Posing as a physician he attended her in an illness and succeeded in curing her. He visited her also in Paris, finally dying to save her honor, after suffering his fingers to be crushed in a door--1823. [A Woman of Thirty.]
