sō`, tüsō`), 1760–1850, Anglo-French modeler in wax, b. Strasbourg, France, as Marie Grosholtz or Grosholz. She learned her art from her uncle, Philippe Curtius, a proprietor of wax museums in Paris. Tussaud was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, and many heads of famous persons were brought to her for modeling. She inherited Curtius's collections in 1794. In 1802 she immigrated to England, where in London in 1835 she established a museum that remains a principal tourist attraction, now known as Madame Tussauds.
Bibliography
See J. T. Tussaud, The Romance of Madame Tussaud's (1920); S. P. Martin, I, Madame Tussaud (1957), a fictionalized account.
Tussaud, Marie
orig. Marie Grosholtz(born Dec. 1, 1761, Strasbourg, France—died April 16, 1850, London, Eng.) French British founder of Madame Tussaud's museum of wax figures in London. From 1780 until the French Revolution, she served as art tutor to Louis XVI's sister. During the Reign of Terror she made death masks from heads—frequently those of her friends—freshly severed by the guillotine. In 1802 she moved to Britain with her collection of wax models. Her museum contains a variety of historical figures, including the original models she made of her great contemporaries, including Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. By the turn of the 21st century, branches of her museum were located throughout the world.
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