Pierre Desloges

This painting is Pierre Desloges 1742- ? He was born in LeGrand Pressigny, in the Loire Valley, in France. He moved to Paris when he was 21. He found a job as a bookbinder and a paperhanger. This painting is from my own imagination after reading the book, The Deaf Experience written by Harlan Lane. Desloges wrote the first book ever published by a Deaf man, himself. He wrote the book to defend Deaf people’s sign language against Abbe DesChamps, who supported oralism and said oral method is the best way to learn than using sign language. Desloges emphasized that sign language is a natural language for the Deaf. He called sign language, “useful art.” Desloges became deaf from smallpox and lost all of his teeth. There was no portrait of Desloges nor descriptions of what he looked like, except that he always kept his mouth closed. No one knew what year he died