Max Ingrand

Background

Max Ingrand (Maurice Max-Ingrand, 1908 Bressuire – 1969 Paris) was a French artist and decorator. He studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, under Jacques Grüber and Charles Lemaresquier, and began his career in glass etching with his first wife, Paulette Rouquié, exhibiting at the Société des artistes décorateurs in 1931.

Signature Style

Ingrand was above all a master of glass. His stained glass windows, often bold and modern, filled churches, hotels and public buildings, and he brought the same understanding of light passing through glass to lamps for FontanaArte, where he was artistic director from 1954.

Notable Works

For FontanaArte he designed the Fontana table lamp (1954), still one of the company's best sellers, and the Ashanghai lamp that remains in the catalogue. His stained glass includes windows for Notre-Dame de Paris after World War II, and for Pontoise, Strasbourg, Rouen, Beauvais, Saint-Malo, Tours and Münster cathedrals, among many others.

Legacy

Ingrand was made an officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1968 he founded Verre Lumière, one of the first producers of halogen lamps. He died suddenly of influenza in Paris in 1969; his Fontana lamp is still produced by FontanaArte.