River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-07-03
Al Blind sculptor.

Much might be written about the diff
culties with hich the blind have to con
tend. When they devote themselves to
hand labor, it Is easy 10 understand that
they may attain to 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 inspiration of genius.
M. Louis Vidal, the blind sculptor to
whom we alude, was born in Nismes in
1881, and wren a young man came to
Paris, where he commenced his artistic
studies under the direction of 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 81 he
d. as quite suddenly attacked With paral-
ysis of the eyes and became completely
blind.
Having cultivated up to that time the
excellent notions he had received from
such men of talent as Barge, Pradier and
Others, he did not allow the great calami-
ty which had befallen him to turn him
from the career he had chosen, and he
determined that his fingers should place
his ewes 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 70
compensate for the loss of sight, and it
was by the careful manipulation of living
subjects and of the orks his colleagues
kindly placed at his disposal that he
charged his memory with the forms and
outlines which his fineness of touch en-
abled him to reproduce at first in the
plastic clay and afterward in the block
of marble.
The writer OF this notice we'll remem-
bers poor Vidal from 1855 to 1865. Dur
ing that time the blind sculptor used to
frequently walk in the beautiful gardens
of the Luxembourg palace, not then dis
figured by intersections; and he walked
with such assurance that persons 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 eu theatre du Luxembourg,
which he entered with as much confidence
as any other person, to sit do n quite
calmly to coffee and game of dominoes,
that he won more often than he lost
When once he had felt the dots on the
dOminocs he knew how to play, and never
made q mistake. He has never quilted
the neighbofhood of the Luxembourg,
where he still lives in the Rue Denfert-
Rochereau.
Unlike many Of his blind predecessors,
Vidal has produced several original cfea-
tons. He has exhibited for more than
twenty years in succession; and re-
ceived a medal in 1861. Lions; panthefs,
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 acqui-
sitlon of one of his productions during
the reign of the late Emperor, Napole-
on III.
Vidal works at any hour of the day or
night, but prefers night time on account
of being able to work alone and in
silence. He has been known to invite "a
friend to his humble studio after night
fall, and to forget that his inUite was not
blind and could not see in the dark.
When reminded of the fact, he would
.locularly stimulate great haste, go to the
mantelpieee for matches, and hight wax
candle without difficulty, as he would
also a cigar.
NJ. Vidal never says: ~ feel" or 81
touch" but II see," and he is terribly
averse to being pitied for his calamity, OF
which he does not even like to be remind
ed. He is an art critic, and may be seen
at all the exhibitions manipulating the
pieces Of sculpture in the tiiinttest man
ner previous to passing his opinion upon
them, which he generally does most jt-
dlciously and without any prejudice. His
own love of art is so rooted in himself
that he is deligted when he encounters a
work of me;it which he can cordially
praise. Although only 4s years of age,
he has already produced enough to insure
his reputation as man of genius, and to
give birth to the regret on the part of his
admirers that he lost the in estiraable
blessing of sight, which might have en-
abled him to arrive at the very pinnacle
of sculptural art.