Philippe-Antoine Grouvelle

Philippe-Antoine Grouvelle (27 February 1758, Paris – 30 September 1806, Varennes, Essonne) was an 18th-century French man of letters and journalist.

The son of a goldsmith, Grouvelle was placed with a notary, who, seeing him busier making verses than acts, dismissed him. Chamfort then took him as secretary, and when he left the job of secretary to the Prince of Condé, Chamfort arranged for Grouvelle to take his place.

Grouvelle was successful in Versailles where the Queen had his little opera Prunes performed which he had written with Desprez. 20 June 1788, he had a comedy entitled l’Épreuve délicate presented at the Théâtre-Français but it had one performance only and was not published.

When the French Revolution broke out, Grouvelle adopted its principles, was a founder of the Society of 1789 and published a policy brochure dated from the very Palais Bourbon. Therefore, he could no longer remain in service to the Prince. After he left him, he engaged into an association with Chamfort, Joseph-Antoine Cerutti and Rabaut de Saint-Étienne in order to publish la Feuille villageoise ().

After he became Secretary of the Provisional Executive Council in August 1792, he had to bring to Louis XVI at the Prison du Temple the sentence condemning him to death. Jean-Baptiste Clery, in his memoirs, said that "Grouvelle read off with a low, trembling voice, and he came out of prison in a marked agitation".

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