Madame Tussaud

The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. Two things of her life are especially noteworthy. First, she spent her early years amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and came to meet many of the characters involved; second, and perhaps more unusually, she succeeded in business at a time when women were rarely involved in the world of commerce.

Madame Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in 1761 and christened Marie Grosholtz. Her father, a soldier, was killed in battle during the Seven Years War only two months before Mari’s birth. Her mother was a housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius, a skilled wax sculptor. From the earliest childhood, Marie learnt modeling techniques with Dr Curtius. Just before the French Revolution they moved to Paris.

Curtius’ exhibition was so successful that it became patronized by the French royal family. At that time Marie’s talent became apparent and she was invited to the royal court to assist in the artistic education of King Louis XVI’s sister, Madame Elizabeth.

Life at Versailles was in vivid contrast to Marie’s previous existence. The capital became a centre of chaotic activity: no one was safe, and at one time both Marie and her mother were imprisoned, sharing a cell with Josephine de Beauharnais, who later became the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. They came terrifyingly close to death, even having their hair cropped in preparation for a meeting with “Madame la Guillotine”. But they were not executed, and nobody knew why. Long before Marie was asked to prepare the death masks of many of her former employers after they had been executed – among them Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, Jean Paul Marat, the philosopher and revolutionary who was stabbed to death, while taking a bath, by the royalist Charlotte Corday. This portrait, along with many others modeled by Marie, is still on display today.

In 1794, Curtius died and Marie inherited the business which had grown under her influence. In the following year she married a French engineer, Francois Tussaud, and gave birth to three children: a daughter, who died, and two sons.

France was still suffering enormous deprivation and Marie’s exhibition was struggling to survive. In 1802 Marie made a monumental decision. She would leave her husband and her baby son, Francis, in Paris, while she and her elder son, Joseph, would tour the exhibition round the British Isles.

Marie was to see neither France nor her husband again. She spent the next 33 years traveling the length and breadth of the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of figures to crowds of curious and intrigued spectators. Joseph (her elder son) accompanied her, taking a keen interest in the craft of making wax figures. Soon his brother Francis joined them.

Madame Tussaud’s has survived its fair share of disaster over the years. In 1822 a ship carrying the exhibition to Ireland was wrecked; fortunately, however, most of the figures were saved.

In the days before television, cinema and radio, Madame Tussaud’s figures were a sensation. Week after week, the figures of Lord Byron, the murderers Burke and Hare, King George IV, Queen Caroline of Brunswick, Shakespeare and the death mask of the Emperor Napoleon – among many others – were packed and unpacked to be shown to an admiring public.

The travels ended in 1835, when Madame Tussaud’s exhibition found a permanent home. It was in London, not far from today’s exhibition.

Another interesting development of the period was the establishment of what was to become the Chamber of Horrors, originally known in Britain as the “Separate Room”. Madame Tussaud’s collection of the victims and perpetrators of violent punishment and assorted murderers and miscreants was an unquestionable success. The most famous moulds were Vlad the Impaler (Dracula), Jean Paul Marat, The Torture Wheel, The Guillotine, etc. Madame Tussaud can be seen in the Chamber of Horrors searching for the severed head of Marie Antoinette in the Madeleine Cemetery.

Madame Tussaud was actively involved in the exhibition almost to the end of her life. This would be a remarkable feat even now, and was particularly unusual for a woman in the 19^th century. In April 1850, at the age of 89, she died. Her final work – a remarkable self-portrait modeled eight years before her death – can still be seen today.

In 1925, disaster again struck. An electrical fault sparked a fire which, despite the efforts of Madame Tussaud’s own firefighters and the London Fire Brigade, soon raged out of the control. Not surprisingly, before long the floors of the exhibition ran with molten wax. Many of the figures were destroyed, priceless Napoleonic relics including his campaign among them. The Chamber of Horrors escaped the full ferocity of the blaze and, fortunately, it contained Madame Tussaud’s irreplaceable death masks – the faces of Robespierre, Marat and Charles Peace greeted arriving firemen. A large number of the moulds used to create fresh figures survived intact, and Madame Tussaud’s immediately set about planning for the future. By 1928 the interior had been reconstructed, this time with the addition of a cinema and restaurant.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939, all of Britain was threatened by enemy action – not least London. During the night of 8^th September 1940, the first night of the London Blitz, Madame Tussaud’s was struck by a heavy bomb which inflicted significant damage. Some 352 head moulds were damaged beyond repair and the cinema was completely destroyed – although, thankfully, no lives were lost. In December of that same year, the exhibition again opened its doors to the public.

So the story of Madame Tussaud and the history of her museum are really fascinating, as you have already found out. She was a remarkable character in so many ways: she was a shrewd businesswoman, as well as 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.

For most guests to Madame Tussaud’s, wax figures are startling, three-dimensional likenesses of people who are known by face or repute, and can be either adored, or sometimes abhorred. But how the figures are actually created remains a mystery – not surprisingly perhaps, for the studios where the wax creations are made can never be visited. The only exceptions to this rule are the subjects who come to be modeled, and over the years hundreds of celebrities have made their way to Madame Tussaud’s “stage door” to be received in the private studio, which has been purpose built for sittings.

At the sitting, the sculptor has the opportunity to take precise measurements and to photograph the subject’s head and body from every possible angle. During the sitting the sculptor also makes the all-important observations that will convey personality and character as the sculptor progresses. The sitting can tale place anywhere in the world, but the rest of the stages in producing a portrait take place in the studios in London.

After the sitting, a plaster “negative” is moulded from the sculptor’s portrait, and great care must be taken to avoid damaging the precious clay original.

Once the wax head has been cast from the mould eyes, hair and colour are the next painstaking stages to be completed. Eyes are made individually to exactly match the colour and detail of the subject; human hair is installed strand by strand into the wax scalp; and colour is carefully applied to bring the face and features “to life”. The final assembly of the figure is supervised by the sculptor and wardrobe mistress. The whole process of creating a likeness usually takes about six months. When a new figure enters Madame Tussaud’s, the studios remain closely concerned with its appearance and like every other figure it will undergo an early morning checking and cleaning before the exhibition opens each day. This rigorous attention to detail is constantly maintained and continues to uphold the high standard for which Madame Tussaud’s is justifiably known.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31