Marie Grosholz, who became Madame Tussaud was born December 16, 1761 at Strasbourg, Her father, a soldier, was killed in the seven-year war, two months before Marie was born. She and her mother lived alone; her mother was a housekeeper for Marie's uncle, Dr Philippe Curtius, a skilled wax sculptor.
For the first five years of her life Marie lived in Berne. Marie and her mother moved with Dr. Curtius to Paris where he founded his own wax studio. Marie became his assistant and soon she was allowed to make the wax masks of many famous people including King Louis XVI and the American statesman Benjamin Franklin.
She served the French royal court for many years as the art tutor for King Louis XVI sister
In 1789, after the French revolution started, Marie and her mother were imprisoned and almost lost their lives. They shared a cell with Josephine de Beauharnais, who later became the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. Marie was forced to make death masks from the heads of famous people, who had been guillotined, including King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette.
In 1794 Marie's uncle Curtius died and Marie inherited her uncle's wax museums. In the next year she married an engineer, Francois Tussaud, and by 1800 she had two sons and a daughter who died.
France was still suffering enormous deprivation and Marie's exhibition was struggling to survive. In 1802 Marie Tussaud made a decision. She left her husband and baby son, Francis, in Paris, while she and her elder son, Joseph, would tour the exhibition around the British Isles.
Marie was to see neither France and her husband again. She spent the next 33 years travelling the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of figures before establishing a permanent hime in 1935 on Baker Street in London.
Shakespeare in wax at Madame Tussaud's Museum
During this time Marie's youngest son Francis was being looked after by Madame Tussaud's mother in France. When, in 1826, Madame Grosholtz died, Francis joined his mother and brother on the road in Britain.
The waxworks moved to the Marylebone Road in 1884. There was always an interest in royalty and celebrity and the models of murderers became known as the Chamber of Horrors (so named by Punch magazine).
There have been two serious fires at Madame Tussauds - in 1894 and 1925.
Wax figures had an important place in the cultures of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, particularly in connection with funeral rites. Wax modelling went on through the Middle Ages, and some of the great Renaissance masters used wax sculpture. During the 18th century wax portrait medallions were popular. Travelling exhibitions of waxworks were also popular in the 18th century and it was this market that Madame Tussaud entered and dominated.
Marie Tussaud died on April 16, 1850 at the age of 89. Eight years earlier she had completed her greatest work, a remarkable self-portrait that is still on display today. Madame Tussaud was a remarkable character in so many ways, she was a master-craftswoman. She gave Madame Tussaud's a reputation which cannot be destroyed as long as the workers, who, guided by her spirit, do everything they can to protect the history of perfection which Madame Tussaud's stands for today.
Louis Tussaud the great-grandson of Madame Tussaud is care taker and holds the legacy [today there are waxworks in London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, New York, Canada and Denmark] Some work of Madam Taussad's group are - Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, King George IV, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando), Queen Elizabeth I sitting on her throne, Vlad the Impaler (Dracula), Hitler, a scene of Marie Tussaud making death masks of the guillotine victims' severed heads, and many more.
Sean Connery in wax at Madame Tussaud's Museum
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