Max Blondat was a French sculptor of Art Nouveau* and Art Deco* styles. One of his most famous sculptures is the Fountain of Youth, representing three children watching three frogs. Copies are at the Place Darcy in Fontainebleau; Düsseldorf, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ukraine, Odessa; Zurich, Switzerland, and the United States in Denver.
He was the son of a cooper and was apprenticed to an ornamental sculptor in 1886. He arrived in Paris and began studies in 1889 and in 1890 he exhibited at the French Salon* for the first time with a plaster medallion.
In 1892 he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts* in Paris. He worked in wood, stone, earth, glass, bronze, and excelled in the decorative arts*, reducing the time he spent on sculpture and turning to design of utilitarian products such as car radiator caps, door knockers, clocks, pockets, and ashtrays.
He produced ceramics with Edmond Lachenal in the Sevres, works of wrought iron with Edgar Brandt, and created jewelry for Hermès and Chambon. In 1906 he was a founding member of the Society of French Decorative Arts.
Some of his work is on display at the museum in Boulogne-Billancourt.
During World War I he was a camouflage* artist, which he ceased in 1917 and then led the School of Fine Arts in Dijon until 1919.
Sources:
artfinding.com, www.artfinding.com/Biography/Blondat-Max/8951.html (Accessed 01/25/2013)
Ray R. Behrens, Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage
French, 1875-1925