Camille Ournac

Camille Ournac (31 August 1845 – 24 February 1925) was a wine merchant, miller and French politician. In his political life he was member of the Departmental council, socialist mayor of Toulouse where he initiated several reforms and improvements to the city. He later became senator for Haute-Garonne in the Third French Republic.

Life
Born in Toulouse on 31 August 1845, Camille Ournac, became a wholesale wine merchant, a miller and then Conseil général of French Departments, Ournac was the first of a succession of radical socialist mayors of Toulouse who founded the labor exchange and set up the first horse-drawn streetcars in the city. His tenure was from 20 May 1888 until October 1892.

Like his brother Henry, Ournac was a cartoonist, signing his works "Ka-Mill". He was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur in 1889. Ournac's son, Jean, died in Royan age thirty-six on 15 December 1911 while his father, Camille, was 79 years of age when he died on 24 January 1925 in Toulouse.

Mayor of Toulouse
Elected on the list of radical and socialist republican union sponsored by La Dépêche du Midi, against the republican list where Josef Sirven appeared. He was elected on 15 May 1892, but on 6 October Ournac resigned with his deputies, Honoré Serres and Jean Jaurès. He was re-elected on the 9th and resigned a second time.

By a municipal decree of 14 April 1891, under the direction of mayor Ournac Musée Saint-Raymond became a "museum of ancient and exotic decorative arts" in Toulouse and was inaugurated by him on 24 April 1892.

In 1892, Ournac decided to create the Salle des Illustres, a large gallery of works by Toulouse artists in the Capitole de Toulouse, now used as a reception hall. The state, which was responsible for half of the renovation costs, and the city, contested the list of artists who would participate in the work. The city's choice to use only artists of the school of Toulouse prevailed when this was decided on 20 January 1892. Artists whose work decorates the hall are Jean-Paul Laurens, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Jean-André Rixens, Paul Gervais, Édouard Debat-Ponsan, Henri Rachou Paul Pujol and Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin.

The painting Entrée de Louis XI à Toulouse by André Roucolle, a local artist, illustrating Louis XI's visit to Toulouse in 1463 is the dominant work hanging in the council chamber. Roucolle uses the images of Ournac, along with Paul Feuga and Ournac's mayoral successor Honoré Serres, as attending figures, because of their involvement in deciding to create the Salle des Illustres using local artist's works.

Also in July 1892, Ournac inaugurated the new Bourse du Travail in Place Saint-Sernin.

Senator
He was first elected as senator for Haute-Garonne in the Third Republic on 3 January 1897, and re-elected in the 1906 election, but in 1920 lost his seat. Ournac joined the French Democratic Left party and intervened on budgetary issues related to agriculture and was also a member of committees on finance, railways, initiative, local interest, and the economic organization of the nation in time of war. On 15 October 1915, Ournac introduced a motion protesting the German execution of Edith Cavell. It passed unanimously in the Senate.

References
Notes
Original French text

Citations

Senators of Haute-Garonne
Mayors of Toulouse
Wine merchants
1845 births
1925 deaths