Marie Tussaud

Marie Tussaud was a French wax modeller who learned the craft from Philippe Curtius and created casts associated with the French Revolution. After moving to Britain she toured her collection for decades, establishing the exhibition tradition that developed into Madame Tussauds.

Marie Tussaud was born in Strasbourg and died in London. Tussaud learned wax modelling from Philippe Curtius in Paris and made casts during the French Revolution before taking her collection to Britain; years of touring culminated in a permanent London exhibition that became Madame Tussauds.

Michelle Moran’s Madame Tussaud makes Marie Grosholtz, the future Madame Tussaud, its protagonist in revolutionary Paris. Her work modelling royalty, philosophers and political leaders gives her access to both Versailles and the reforming circles of the capital, while the Revolution turns the Salon de Cire from popular entertainment into a dangerous record of rapidly changing power and forces Marie to negotiate survival through the Terror.