Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-06-13
A Blind Sculptor.

Much might be written about the dif-
ficulties with which the blind have to
contend. When they devote themselves
to music, piano-forte-tuning, or ordin-
airy hand labor, it is easy to understand
that they may attain to a certain
amount of proficiency. But when the
question of art is concerned the want
of sight would appear to be an almost
insurmountable obstacle to success,
rarely to be overcome except by the in
spiration of genius.
M. Louis Vidal, the blind sculptor to
whom we allude, was born in Nismes
in 1881, and when young man came
to Paris, where he commenced his ar
tistic studies under the direction of NJ.
NJ. Barge and Rouillard. He was then,
and has ever been, true lover of art in
every sense, but at the very early age
of twenty-one he was quite suddenly at
tackled with paralysis of the eyes and
became completely blind. Having cul-
tivated up to that time the excellent
notions he had received from such men
of talent as Barye, Pradier and others,
he did not allow the great calamity
which had befallen him to turn him
from the career he had chosen, and he
determined that his fingers should re-
place his eyes in the execution of his
artistic conceptions. In the course of
time his sense of feeling acquired an
increase of power to such an extent as
almost to compensate for the loss of
sight, and it was by the careful manip-
ulation of living subjects and of the
works his colleagues kindly placed at
his disposal that he charged his memory
with the forms and outlines which his
fineness of touch enabled him to repro
duce at first in the plastic clay and aft
erward in the block of marble.
The writer of this notice well remem-
bers poor Vidal from 1855 to 1865. Dur
ing that time the blind sculptor used to
frequently walk in the beautiful gar
dens of the Luxembourg palace, not
then disfgured by intersections; and he
walked with such assurance that per-
sons who did not know him would
never have supposed that he was blind.
When his promenade was finished, he
was in the habit of going to the cafe du
theater du Luxembourg, which he en-
tered with as much confidence as any
other person, to sit down quite calmly
to coffee and game of dominces, that
he won more often than he lost. When
once he had felt the dots ON the domi-
noes he knew how to play, and never
made a mistake. He has never quilted
the neighborhood of the Luxembourg,
where he still lives in the Rue Denfert-
Rochereau.
Unlike many of his blind predeces-
sors, Vidal has produced several orig
inal creations. He has exhibited for
more than twenty years in succession,
and received medal in 1861. Lions,
panthers, dying stays, goats, COWS,
horses, asses, tigers, bulls and dogs are
his subjects of prediction. Many of
his works, though produced slowly,
have been purchased by the State on
account of their real merit, and the
Empress Eugene made the acquisition
of one of his productions during the
reign ofthe late Emperor, Napoleon III.
Vidal works at any hour of the day
or night, but prefers night time on ac-
count of being able to work alone and
in silence. He has been known to in
Vite friend to his humble studio after
nightfall, and to forget that his iNUite
was not blind and could not see in the
dark. When reminded of the fact, he
would jocularly stimulate great haste,
go to the mantelpiece for matches, and
light a wax candle without difficulty,
as he would also a cigar. M. Vidal
never says: 81 feel, ;" or " touch," but
81 see," and he is terribly averse' to
being pitied for his calamity, of which
he does not even like to be reminded.
He is an art critic, and may be seen at
all the exhibitions manipulating the
pieces of sculpture in the minutest man.
ner previous to passing his opinion up
on them, which he generally does most
judiciously and without any prejudice.
His own love of art is so rooted in him
self that he is delighted when he en-
counters a work of merit which he can
cordially praise. Although only forty
eight years of age, he has already pro-
duced enough to insure his reputation
as a man of genius, and to give birth to
the regret on the part of his admirers
that he lost the inestimable blessing of
sight, which might have enabled him to
arrive at the very pinnacle of sculptur-
al art. Continental GdzeLLe