Louis Vidal (1831-1892), Bronze Sculpture "deer", 19th Century

Large patinated bronze sculpture representing an elegant deer, signed on the terrace Vidal Aveugle. 19th century. Louis Vidal, Vidal l'aveugle or Vidal-Navatel is a French sculptor born on December 6, 1831 in Nîmes and died on May 9, 1892 in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. He studied with animal sculptors Antoine-Louis Barye and Pierre Louis Rouillard and became an animal sculptor himself by replacing sight with touch. This ability allowed him to create portraits, he perceived the shape of faces by touching them and sculpted them in clay, and remains known for being the author of a sculpture representing a roaring lion, as well as that of a bronze bull, donated by the State to the Museum of Fine Arts in Nîmes in 1867. Louis Vidal worked in particular with Alfred Barye, son of his master Antoine-Louis Barye. He became a professor of modeling in 1888 at the École Braille in Paris. A portrait of the artist by the photographer Étienne Carjat, dating from 1865, acquired by the Musées nationaux in 1986, is kept in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay. Louis Vidal died on May 9, 1892 at the Quinze-Vingts hospital in Paris.