On his father's side Le Blon descended from
Huguenots who fled France in 1576, settling in Frankfurt. He belonged to a family of printers and booksellers who focused on travel books. His father, Christophe Le Blon, was an engraver and bookseller in
Frankfurt am Main. His grandfather, Christof Le Blon, married Susanna Barbara Merian, daughter of the artist and engraver
Matthäus Merian (1593–1650). Le Blon is reported to have received training as a young man from the Swiss painter and engraver
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1618–1689) in Zurich but there is no documentary evidence to confirm the conclusion. There, he became acquainted with the Dutch painter and engraver
Bonaventura van Overbeek. In 1707, Le Blon issued a short publication in Dutch on the forms of the human body. During his time as a miniature painter, he began experimenting with color printing. His system used three different plates, each inked with a different color and applied in sequence to a single sheet of paper. In 1710 he made his first color prints with yellow, red, and blue plates. He founded his business, named The Picture Office, and sold copies of pictures of famous people and paintings from notable artists. However, the company failed as a business venture in 1725. His company was still not very profitable, however, at the time of his death in 1741. His former student,
Jacques-Fabien Gautier d'Agoty, argued that Le Blon was not a legitimate color printer, and he claimed Le Blon's privilège for himself, naming himself the inventor of color printing. == Contribution to color printing ==