Bronze sculpture of a roaring walking lion by Louis Vidal Navatel, blind, 19th century

This sculpture is in good condition. It is signed on the base (see photos).

Note: slight wear due to age on the patina, see photos.

*Louis Vidal known as Navatel (1831-1892):

Louis Vidal, also known as Vidal the Blind or Vidal-Navatel, was a French sculptor. Born to an unknown father and Sophie Vidal-Navatel, he grew up in a family of artists. His stepfather was the painter Alexandre Colin, who married his mother as her second husband, and his half-brother was Paul-Alfred Colin. He studied anatomy but became blind around 1853, which prevented him from pursuing this path. He then studied under the animal sculptors Antoine-Louis Barye and Pierre Louis Rouillard and became an animal sculptor himself, 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. He is best known for his sculpture of a roaring lion, as well as a bronze bull, which was donated by the French state to the Nîmes Museum of Fine Arts in 1867. Louis Vidal worked notably with Alfred Barye, son of his mentor Antoine-Louis Barye. He became a professor of modeling in 1888 at the Braille School in Paris.
At the end of his career, he was hospitalized at the Quinze-Vingts, where he died. (excerpt from Bénézit)

Highly rated artist on ArtPrice.