Who was Madame Tussaud?
A visit to the Madame Tussauds wax museum has been extremely popular with tourists for some time now. You can find branches of the museum in many large cities. But who exactly is the museum named after? In short, who was Madame Tussaud?
Marie Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in December 1761, as Marie Grosholz. Her father died during the Seven Years’ War, a few months after her birth. Marie’s mother earned her living in Bern as housekeeper to Philippe Curtius, a doctor who had specialised in the reproduction of human organs for anatomy lessons. Later, he also taught himself face modeling.
In 1765, this Curtius moved to Paris, where he opened a waxwork cabinet. Two years later, Marie and her mother followed him there. In the absence of a father, Curtius took care of young Marie, who became his apprentice. Around her sixteenth birthday, Marie made her first wax sculpture, a portrait of Voltaire. This was followed by portraits of celebrities such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin, some of whom are said to have been personal guests of Curtius. After Curtius’ death, Marie Tussaud inherited his two wax museums in 1794.
