Introduction

To be immortalized forever in wax you don’t need to be a Queen or a politician, you just need to be a celebrity with a pulling power.

In fact, there is a great number of wax works exhibitions in our county and abroad. Wax personalities attract millions of visitors all over the world. It’s an open secret that a transnational entertaining company Tussaud’s Group is at the top of the list.

During my summer trip to St. Petersburg I also visited some wax – works exhibitions. Two of them were really fascinating and worth seeing. But I was also disappointed to discover that there is too much hackwork at this field. All this aroused my particular interest in wax sculpture and made me investigate the subject deeper. The aim of my work is to research the history of the matter, to reveal the facts of Madame Tussaud’s life and to trace the development of Wax Works Museum into the world’s biggest entertaining centre Tussaud’s Group.

This written work can be used at English lessons and world art lessons, as well as at extra curricular, devoted to great personalities. I’m sure it will help to broaden the student’s outwork.

How It All Began

First it was a living newspaper, then a History textbook, London’s visit card, a movie theatre, a restaurant and even a planetarium. Today Madame Tussaud’s Wax Works Museum is the most visited tourist attraction in the world. Its founder, Madame Tussaud is considered to be the first business lady in the world’s history and is called a grandmother of modern show – business.

At the beginning of the 17th century Europe was captured by fashion on wax portrait sculptures. Although thy were not so long – living and tough as those made of marble and bronze, they were at greater demand as more realistic and cheaper. And it made them available not only for merchants and aristocrats but for the common citizens as well. And they wanted to remain in their grandchildren’s memories.

Madame Tussaud and Her Museum

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 during the French Revolution and came to meet many of the characters involved. Second, and perhaps more unusually, she succeeded in business at 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 a battle during the Seven Years War only two months before Marie’s birth. Her mother was a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, a skilled wax sculptor. From the earliest childhood Marie learnt modelling techniques with Dr. Curtius. Just before the French Revolution they moved to Paris.

At that time Marie’s talent became apparent and he was invited to the royal court to assist in the artistic education of the King Loui XVI’s sister, Madame Elizabeth. Life in Versallies was vivid contrast to Marie’s pervious existence. The capital became a centre chaotic activity; no one was safe, and at one time both Marie and her mother were imprisoned. 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, Lois XVI, Jean Paul Marat, the philosopher and revolutionary. This portrait, along with many others modelled by Marie, is still on display today.

In 1794 Cutius died, and Marie inherited the business, which was 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 exhibiton 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 to the exhibition round the British Isles.

Marie was to see neither France nor her husband again. She spent the next 33 years travelling around 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.

In the days before television, cinema and radio Madame Tussaud’s figures ere sensation. Week after week the figures of Lord Byron, the murders Burke and Hare, King George IV, Queen Carline of Brunswik, Shakespeare and the death mask of 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. Madame Tussaud’s collection of the victims and perpetrators of violent punishment and murders and miscreants was an unquestionable success.

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 19th century. In April 1850, at the age of 89, she died. Her final work – a remarkable self – portrait modelling eight years before her death – can still be seen today.

There are some interesting facts about her museum. In 1925 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. Many of the figures were destroyed. ............