He was a pupil of Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1873 with a remarkable charcoal, Portrait de Madame Martin.
In 1876 he exhibited a Portrait of Cardinal Lavigerie there and in 1880 he participated in the Fifth exhibition of the IMPRESSIONISTS with several portraits including that of Georges Sand.
In 1881 he exhibited again at the Sixth exhibition a painting entitled Au Café and then stopped presenting his work at The Salons until 1906 when he exhibited Jeune Fille at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
In 1900 he obtained a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition where he showed portraits and pastels.

Eugène Vidal is a painter who through his eclecticism, can manifest himself both at the Academic Salon and at Impressionist exhibitions.
Some of his portraits, such as Woman in a Pink Corset or Young Girl from the Back Wearing a Hat, are similar to the work of Mary Cassatt.
Eugène Vidal also traveled to Algeria from where he brought back scenes of daily life and landscapes treated in a firm and generous paste, which made him a prized orientalist painter: Marabouts discussing on the way to Constantine, (Musée de Tours),
Marabout in the Mosque of Constantine, Salon of 1874 and
Street in the Kasbah in Algiers, Salon of 1878.