Marie Tussaud

Marie Tussaud
Madame Tussaud "at the age of 42, when she left France for England". Portrait study (1921) by John Theodore Tussaud.
Born	Anna Maria Grosholtz 1 December 1761 Strasbourg, France
Died	16 April 1850 (aged 88) London, England
Nationality	French
Known for	Wax modelling
Notable work	Madame Tussauds

Anna Maria "Marie" Tussaud (French: [tyso]; née Grosholtz; 1 December 1761 – 16 April 1850) was a French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds, the wax museum she founded in London.

Marie Tussaud was born 1 December 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her father, Joseph Grosholtz, was killed in the Seven Years' War just two months before Marie was born. At the age of six her mother, Anne-Marie Walder, took her to Bern, in Switzerland. There the family moved into the home of local doctor Philippe Curtius (1741–1794), for whom Anne-Marie acted as housekeeper.

Curtius, who Marie would call her uncle, wasn't only a physician, but he was also skilled in wax modelling. He initially used his talent as wax sculptor to illustrate anatomy but later for portraits. He moved to Paris in 1765 to establish a Cabinet de Portraits En Cire (Cabinet of Portraits in Wax). In that year, he made a waxwork of Louis XV's last mistress, Madame du Barry, a cast that is the oldest work currently on display. A year later, Tussaud and her mother joined Curtius in Paris. The first exhibition of Curtius' waxworks was shown in 1770 and attracted a large crowd. In 1776, the exhibition was moved to the Palais Royal and, in 1782, Curtius opened a second exhibit, the Caverne des Grands Voleurs (Cavern of the Grand Thieves), a precursor to Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, on Boulevard du Temple.