Madame Tussauds was a French woman born in 1761 who dedicated her life to sculpture. Madame Tussauds' name has not transcended as much as her museums have, but that is why it is interesting to discover who was the forerunner of wax museums. Obama at Madame Tussauds London| ©Veselina Dzhingarova The exhibition is divided into thematic areas where you are sure to find your favorite personalities. If you buy tickets for Madame Tussauds London you can discover what the process of creating the sculptures is like and admire the final result, as well as the sets that are also made with the utmost attention to detail. Such is the degree of realism of the figures that if their flesh-and-blood namesakes change their physique in real life, they also do so in their wax figures. Their sculptures are so accomplished that you will have the impression of being in front of the real person. The museum houses the largest display of wax figures in the world with world-renowned personalities from different fields. It is not only the best known but also the one that houses the largest exhibition. Madame Tussauds wax museum is one of the must-see things to see in London. Of all the wax museums in the world, one stands out above the rest. They are spread all over the planet in major cities and are a highly demanded tourist attraction. This wax figure of "Sleeping Beauty" (actually said to be a mistress of Louis XV) was recast from an original mold made by Marie Tussaud herself, and can now be seen at Tussauds London.Wax museums enjoy great popularity today. “Notorious characters and the relics of famous crimes are segregated in the ‘Chamber of Horrors,’ a name coined jokingly by a contributor to Punch in 1845.” This recipe was a success: museums bearing her name still operate around the world today. “Madame Tussaud’s museum is topical as well as historical and includes both the famous and the infamous,” writes the Encyclopedia Britannica. But, true to its roots in French Salon culture, it didn’t just offer politics. Tussaud correctly tapped into a public thirst for information during a period of time that was shaped by the Napoleonic Wars and other political turmoil. “The Duke of Wellington was a regular visitor and liked to look at the effigies of himself and Napoleon, and when Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837 Madame Tussaud’s put on a magnificent display of the scene,” Cavendish writes. In 1835, writes Cavendish, she opened a museum in London to display and create her art. In a time before photographs, these waxworks offered viewers a chance to see newsmaking figures like Marie Antoinette or Jean-Paul Marat in the "flesh." She toured around England, Scotland and Ireland showing her wax figures. She didn’t speak English, but she went on to become a household name, writes Richard Cavendish for History Today. Seizing an opportunity, she headed to England to seek her fortune, with her waxworks and sons (but no husband) in tow.Īn image of Marie Tussaud as an old woman based on a drawing attributed to one of her sons, Francis Tussaud. However, by the early 19th century Tussaud’s teacher had died “and she found herself supporting a lackadaisical husband and their two sons,” she writes. “It seems that decapitated heads were often brought to her straight from the guillotine, although at times she went to the cemetery to seek out her subjects, on reputedly secret orders from the National Convention.” These heads were shown in Curtius’s famous Salon de Cire. “Following the fall of the Bastille, Tussaud modeled dozens of death masks, including those of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and Robespierre,” writes Spies-Gans. She had trained under anatomical wax modeler Philippe Curtius, who also raised her.ĭuring the Revolution, she took on an important role. However, earlier in her life, in her native France, writes Paris Amanda Spies-Gans for Journal18, “Tussaud’s wax figures were central to the Revolutionary world, both as portraits and as lifelike representations of their subjects.”Īmong other things, in France she sculpted the severed heads of people executed in the Revolution. By this time, writes Spies-Gans, Tussaud was already a well-known wax modeler. Today Tussaud is chiefly remembered for launching a famous wax museum in Britain that is still operating today and has spawned numerous outposts. Marie Tussaud, born on this day in 1761, became wealthy, famous and successful thanks to her talent for wax sculpting, her business acumen and a new kind of public fascination with bodies and public figures.
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