Kids and frog

The popular French sculptor Max Blond exhibited a marble sculptural composition-fountain "Youth" at the Paris Art Salon in 1904. The work was successful, several buyers from different countries of Europe tried to acquire it. Perhaps, to satisfy demand, the sculptor agreed with the buyers on the manufacturereplicas of the sculptural group. Some changes were made to each individual composition, possibly related to the wishes of each specific customer ^[3] .

Roughly in those (1905-1907) years, one of the sculptural groups was acquired by someone from wealthy residents of Odessa. Odessa local historians Yelena Krasnova and Anatoly Drozdovsky made the assumption that the sculpture was originally installed on the territory of the dacha of Akim Bisk, a famous jeweler and father of the poet and translator Alexander Bisk in the south of Russia . Biski owned a summer house at 26 Frantsuzky Boulevard , later the buildings of Odessa University were built there ^[3] .

After the establishment of Soviet power, real estate underwent nationalization . This fate befell the cottage Biskov. The architect V. Trofimenko in the bibliographic reference “Architects of Ukraine of the late 18th – mid 20th centuries” indicated that the sculpture-fountain “Children and Frogs” ( sic ) was installed on Theater Square in Odessa in 1925. At the beginning, the fountain was installed in the center of the flowerbed separating the City Theater from the building of the English Club. In pre-war and post-war photographs, this fountain is clearly visible against the backdrop of the theater. In the 1970s, the composition was moved close to the building of the English Club, which in Soviet times housed the Odessa Museum of the Navy ^[3] .

During his stay on Theater Square, the sculptural composition was repeatedly subjected to vandal attacks - fragments of limbs were beaten off from the figures of children, the frog was smashed or stolen. The consequences of vandalism were eliminated every time by city services ^[4] .

The fountains "Youth" of Max Blond in 1905-1907 were installed in French Dijon , German Dusseldorf , American Denver , Swiss Zurich . Differing in the number of installed frogs and details of working out the stone on which three children sit, the fountains are completely repeated in the form of figures of children ^[3] .

In Dijon, a fountain is installed on Darcy Square in the city center and is surrounded by picturesque flower beds. Dijonians call it the fountain of youth, as its author called it, or the fountain with frogs ^[3] .

In Dusseldorf, the Blond Fountain appeared before other cities - in 1905 - and was named after him. "Maerchenbrunnen" ("Fairytale Fountain"). The fountain was installed in an old palace park ( German: Hofgarten ) - the first public park in Germany. Despite the fact that the fountain is surrounded by an elegant lattice, this did not stop local vandals from spoiling marble figures. On the eve of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the fountain, the city authorities of Dusseldorf transferred the marble sculpture to the museum, and a bronze copy of children and frogs was installed in the park, which was not physically impossible to repel. The Dusseldorf fountain has been painted by artists more than once, many of its photographic images and postcards of various times are known ^[3] .

In addition, the plot of the sculpture group “Children and Frogs” was used by Max Blond not only for fountains, but also for various household items : a porcelain ink device, a gold-bronze ashtray, a wooden figurine and the like ^[3] .

• Laocoon
• Lion and lioness

• Drozdovsky A., Krasnova E. “Fairytale Fountain” in Odessa (Russian) // Deribasovskaya - Reshilievskaya: Literary, artistic, historical and local lore illustrated almanac. - 2012. - T. 49 , No. II . - S. 24-30 .