Marie Tussaud

Marie Tussaud
Madame Tussaud "at the age of 42, when she left France for England". Portrait study (1921) by John Theodore Tussaud.
Birth name	Anna Maria Grosholtz
Born	1 December 1761 Strasbourg, France
Died	16 April 1850 (aged 88) London, England
Nationality	French
Field	Wax modelling
Works	Madame Tussauds

Anna Maria "Marie" Tussaud (née Grosholtz; 1 December 1761 – 16 April 1850) was a French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds, the wax museum she founded in London.

Biography

Marie Tussaud was born 1 December 1761 in Strasbourg, France.^[1] Her father, Joseph Grosholtz, was killed in the Seven Years' War just two months before Marie was born. Her mother, Anne-Marie Walder,^[2] took her to Bern where she worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius (1741–1794), a physician and wax sculptor who Marie would call her uncle. Curtius initially used his talent for wax modeling to illustrate anatomy. Later, he did portraits.

Curtius moved to Paris in 1765 to establish a cabinet de portraits en cire (wax portrait exhibition).^[2] In that year, he made a waxwork of Louis XV's last mistress, Madame du Barry, a cast that is the oldest work currently on display. A year later, Tussaud and her mother joined Curtius in Paris. The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770 and attracted a large crowd. In 1776, the exhibition was moved to the Palais Royal and, in 1782, Curtius opened a second exhibit, the Caverne des Grands Voleurs, a precursor to the later chamber of horrors, on Boulevard du Temple.

It was Curtius who taught Tussaud the art of wax modeling. She showed talent for the technique and began working for him as an artist. In 1777, she created her first wax figure, that of Voltaire.^[3] From 1780 until the Revolution in 1789, Tussaud created many of her most famous portraits of celebrities such as Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. At the same time, she remained on good terms with the French royal family. She claimed in later years to have been employed to teach votive making to Élisabeth the sister of Louis XVI. In her memoirs, Tussaud claimed that it was in this capacity that she was frequently privy to private conversations between the princess and her brother and members of his court. She also claimed that members of the royal family were so pleased with her work that she was invited to live at Versailles.^{[citation needed]}

French Revolution

In Paris, Tussaud became involved in the French Revolution and met many of its important figures including Napoleon Bonaparte and Robespierre.

Poster for the Tussaud wax figure's exhibition, London 1835.

On 12 July 1789, wax heads of Jacques Necker and the duc d'Orléans made by Curtius were carried in a protest march two days before the attack on the Bastille.

Tussaud was arrested during the Reign of Terror together with Joséphine de Beauharnais; her head was shaved in preparation for execution by guillotine. However, thanks to Collot d'Herbois' support for Curtius and his household, she was released.^[2] Tussaud was then employed to make death masks of the victims of the guillotine, including some of the Revolution's most infamous dead such as Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Marat, and Robespierre. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris. Soon, Tussaud was searching through sanitaries collecting the most illustrious heads she could find.

When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of wax works to Tussaud. In 1795, she married François Tussaud. The couple had two children, Joseph and François.

England

In 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens, Tussaud went to London with her son Joseph, then four years old, to present her collection of portraits having accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits.

As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, Tussaud was unable to return to France so she traveled with her collection throughout Great Britain and Ireland. In 1822, probably during Chateaubriand's ambassadorship, her other son, François, joined her. In 1835, she established her first permanent exhibition in Baker Street, on the upper floor of the "Baker Street Bazaar".^[4] In 1838, she wrote her memoirs. In 1842, she made a self-portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. Some of the sculptures done by Tussaud herself still exist.

She died in her sleep in London on 16 April 1850 at the age of 88. There is a memorial tablet to Madame Marie Tussaud on the right side of the nave of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Cadogan Street, London.

Legacy

Upon Marie Tussaud's retirement, her son François (or Francis) became chief artist for the Exhibition. He was succeeded in turn by his son Joseph, who was succeeded by his son John Theodore Tussaud.^[5]

Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become one of the major tourist attractions in London, and has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Sydney, Madame Tussauds Hong Kong (Victoria Peak), Las Vegas, Shanghai, Berlin, Washington D.C., New York City, and Hollywood. The current owner is Merlin Entertainments Group,^[3] a company owned by Blackstone Group.

Notes

References

• Leonard Cottrell, Madame Tussaud, The Camelot Press, London, 1951.
• Madame Tussaud's memoirs and reminiscences of France, by Marie Tussaud, ed. by F. Hervé, London, 1838.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marie Tussaud.

• Profile page for Marie Gresholtz Tussaud on the Find a Grave web site, including pictures of her Memorial Tablet.