Produced by deaurider and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriberâs Note: Illustrations have been moved from the original position of the printed plates, in order to correspond better with the flow of the text. The List of Illustrations therefore isnât strictly accurate in regard to where the illustrations may be found. THE ROMANCE OF MADAME TUSSAUDâS JOHN THEODORE TUSSAUD [Illustration: MADAME TUSSAUD AT THE AGE OF 85 From the portrait by Paul Fischer, Court painter to H. M. George IV.] THE ROMANCE OF MADAME TUSSAUDâS BY JOHN THEODORE TUSSAUD WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HILAIRE BELLOC ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY WIFE THROUGH WHOSE KINDLY URGING THESE LEAVES HAVE GROWN TO THE DIMENSIONS OF A BOOK PREFACE The earliest information we have concerning Madame Tussaud is that she was born in Switzerland on the 7th of December, 1760, and was the only child of Joseph and Marie Grosholtz. Her mother was the daughter of a Swiss clergyman. She married on the 20th of October, 1795, FranÃ§ois Tussaud, who, it appears, was her junior by seven years. We are able to trace his family back as far as 1630, when his great-great-grandfather, one Denis Tusseaud--for that is how he spelt his name--was born. There is documentary evidence that Denis was brought from Burgy to MÃ¢con in 1631, his family also coming from Burzy, close by, in 1658. His descendants lived at MÃ¢con for more than a century, their occupation being generally that of workers in metal. The great-grandfather of FranÃ§ois was Henry Tusseaud (1684-1717), and his grandfatherâs name was Claude (1716-1767). FranÃ§oisâ father (1744-1786) was the first of the family to adopt the present spelling of the name, although we find that various members of the family used the forms Tussot, Tusseau, Tuissiaud, Tussiaut, Tusseaut, Tussiau, or Thusseaud. Madame Tussaudâs marriage does not appear to have been a happy one, for we learn that in 1800--two years before she came to England--she separated from her husband, of whom we hear nothing further, although he is known to have been living in Paris in the lifetime of his grandsons. The foundress of the famous Exhibition had two sons, Joseph and Francis. Francis (1800-1873) had several sons, the eldest of whom, Joseph Randall (1831-1892), who was a student and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, was the father of the author of this book. Mr. John Theodore Tussaud was born in Kensington on the 2nd of May, 1858, and at the age of six was sent to St. Charlesâs College, London, where he came under the influence of Cardinal Manning, who took a keen personal interest in his welfare. Some six years later he was transferred to Ramsgate, where he benefited by the training he received from the Benedictine monks at St. Augustineâs. In the year 1889 he married Ruth Helena, daughter of Thomas Grew. There are seven sons and three daughters of the marriage. Mr. Tussaud, like his father, has exhibited at the Royal Academy. His occasional contributions to literature have been welcomed by thoughtful readers, and he is a recognised authority on historical matters relating to the French Revolution and the First Empire. Seventeen great-grandsons of Madame Tussaud took an active part in the war, all, without exception, serving in the British Army. Two were killed and most of the others wounded. WILLIAM E. HURT. MIDDLE TEMPLE, LONDON CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE BY WILLIAM E. HURT vii INTRODUCTION BY HILAIRE BELLOC 25 CHAPTER I MR. TUSSAUD FIRST ENTERS HIS FATHERâS STUDIO--_REVERIE_--MADAME TUSSAUDâS UNCLE FORSAKES THE MEDICAL PROFESSION FOR ART--MADAMEâS BIRTH AND PARENTAGE--A PRINCEâS PROMISE 53 CHAPTER II CURTIUS LEAVES BERNE FOR PARIS--THE HÃTEL DâALIGRE--THE COURT OF LOUIS XV--MADAME ARRIVES IN PARIS 59 CHAPTER III LIFE-SIZE FIGURES--MUSEUM AT THE PALAIS ROYAL--EXHIBITION ON THE _BOULEVARD DU TEMPLE_--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN--VOLTAIRE 65 CHAPTER IV MADAME ELIZABETH OF FRANCE--MADAME TUSSAUD GOES TO VERSAILLES--FOULON--THREE NOTABLE GROUPS--GALLERY OF NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS 70 CHAPTER V EVE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION--NECKER AND THE DUKE OF ORLÃANS--LOUIS XVIâS FATAL MISTAKES--HIS DISMISSAL OF THE PEOPLEâS FAVOURITES 77 CHAPTER VI MADAME TUSSAUD RECALLED FROM VERSAILLES--THE TWELFTH OF JULY, 1789--BUSTS TAKEN FROM CURTIUSâS EXHIBITION--A _GARDE FRANÃAISE_ SLAIN IN THE MÃLÃE 81 CHAPTER VII HEADS OF THE REVOLUTION--MADAMEâS TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES--THE GUILLOTINE IN PAWN--MADAME ACQUIRES THE KNIFE, LUNETTE AND CHOPPER 87 CHAPTER VIII MADAME DINES WITH THE TERRORISTS MARAT AND ROBESPIERRE, MODELS THEIR FIGURES AND SUBSEQUENTLY TAKES CASTS OF THEIR HEADS--SHE VISITS CHARLOTTE CORDAY IN PRISON--DEATH OF CURTIUS--MADAME MARRIES--NAPOLEON SITS FOR HIS MODEL 92 CHAPTER IX MADAME TUSSAUD LEAVES FRANCE FOR ENGLAND, NEVER TO RETURN--EARLY DAYS IN LONDON--ON TOUR--SOME NOTABLE FIGURES--SHIPWRECK IN THE IRISH CHANNEL 98 CHAPTER X THE BRISTOL RIOTS--NARROW ESCAPE OF THE EXHIBITION--A BRAVE BLACK SERVANT--ARRIVAL AT BLACKHEATH 103 CHAPTER XI AN OLD PLACARD--PRINCESS AUGUSTAâS TESTIMONIAL--GREAT SUCCESS AT GRAYâS INN ROAD--MADAME INITIATES PROMENADE CONCERTS--BYGONE TABLEAUX 108 CHAPTER XII PLACARD (_Continued_)--THE OLD EXHIBITION--CELEBRITIES OF THE DAY--TUSSAUDâS MUMMY--POETIC EULOGISM--REMOVAL TO BAKER STREET--THE IRON DUKEâS REJOINDER--MADAME DE MALIBRAN 113 CHAPTER XIII HOW THE WATERLOO CARRIAGE WAS ACQUIRED--A CHANCE CONVERSATION ON LONDON BRIDGE--THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF AN EMPERORâS EQUIPAGE--AFFIDAVIT OF NAPOLEONâS COACHMAN 120 CHAPTER XIV NAPOLEONâS WATERLOO CARRIAGE--DESCRIPTION OF ITS EXTERIOR 127 CHAPTER XV DESCRIPTION OF THE WATERLOO CARRIAGE (_Continued_)--ITS INTERIOR AND PECULIAR CONTRIVANCES--BROUGHT TO ENGLAND AND EXHIBITED AT THE LONDON MUSEUM 133 CHAPTER XVI THE ST. HELENA CARRIAGE--NAPOLEON ALARMS THE LADIES--CERTIFICATES OF AUTHENTICITY 139 CHAPTER XVII FATHER MATTHEW SITS FOR HIS MODEL--TSAR NICHOLAS I. TAKES A FANCY TO VOLTAIREâS CHAIR--A REPLICA SENT TO HIM--THE REV. PETER MCKENZIEâS EXORCISM 143 CHAPTER XVIII LANDSEER AND THE COUNT DâORSAY VISIT THE EXHIBITION--A FRIGHT--NORFOLK FARMERâS ACCOUNT OF QUEEN VICTORIAâS VISIT 148 CHAPTER XIX WELLINGTON VISITS THE EFFIGY OF THE DEAD NAPOLEON, AND SITS TO SIR GEORGE HAYTER FOR HISTORIC PICTURE--PAINTINGS FROM MODELS--IS THE PHOTOGRAPH âTAKEN FROM LIFE,â OR--? 153 CHAPTER XX THE STORY OF COLOUR-SERGEANT BATESâS MARCH THROUGH ENGLAND TO PROVE ANGLO-AMERICAN GOODWILL--START FROM GRETNA--THE DOVE OF PEACE 159 CHAPTER XXI SERGEANT BATESâS JOURNEY FINISHES IN LONDON AMID A REMARKABLE DEMONSTRATION--HIS GIFT TO MADAME TUSSAUDâS 164 CHAPTER XXII MY FIRST MODEL--BEACONSFIELDâS CURL--GLADSTONEâS COLLAR--JOHN BRIGHT AND THE CHINAMAN 171 CHAPTER XXIII THE TICHBORNE âCLAIMANTâ--NEARLY AN EXPLOSION--THE BIG MANâS CLOTHES--THE REAL HEIR--THE CLAIMANTâS RELEASE FROM PRISON--CONFESSION AND DEATH 177 CHAPTER XXIV H. M. STANLEY SITS TO JOSEPH TUSSAUD--THE STORY OF HIS LIFE--HOW HE FOUND LIVINGSTONE--A MYSTERIOUS VEILED LADY--THE PRINCE IMPERIAL 181 CHAPTER XXV COUNT LÃON--THE SHAH OF PERSIAâS VISIT--A WEIRD SUGGESTION; NO RESPONSE--KING KOFFEE--CETEWAYO 184 CHAPTER XXVI THE BERLIN CONGRESS--LORD BEACONSFIELD AND THE âTURNERELLI WREATHâ--âTHE PEOPLEâS TRIBUTEâ FINDS A HOME AT TUSSAUDâS--THE SCULPTORâS DESPAIR--HE CONSTRUCTS HIS TOMBSTONE AND DIES 190 CHAPTER XXVII THE PHÅNIX PARK MURDERS--WE SECURE THE JAUNTING-CAR AND PONY--CHARLES BRADLAUGH--GENERAL BOULANGER--LORD ROBERTS INSPECTS THE MODEL OF HIMSELF 197 CHAPTER XXVIII MY FAVOURITE PORTRAIT--LORD TENNYSON POSES UNCONSCIOUSLY BEFORE MY WIFE--âTHIS BEATS TUSSAUDâSâ--SIR RICHARD BURTON--HIS WIDOW CLOTHES THE MODEL 203 CHAPTER XXIX REMOVAL OF THE EXHIBITION TO THE PRESENT BUILDING--SLEEPING FIGURES--HISTORY OF THE PORTMAN ROOMS--THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY--BARON GRANTâS STAIRCASE 208 CHAPTER XXX THE KING OF SIAMâS VISIT--THE SHAHZADAâS CLOTHING--THE KING OF BURMAHâS WAR ELEPHANT--TALE OF TWO MONKEYS 215 CHAPTER XXXI QUEEN VICTORIAâS COPPERPLATES--ANOTHER ROYAL PERSIAN VISIT--âPERISHED BY FIREâ--âVISCOUNT HINTONâ AND HIS ORGAN--THE COQUETTEâS JEWELS LOST AND FOUND 220 CHAPTER XXXII ROYAL VISITORS--KING ALPHONSO AND PRINCESS ENA--THE LATE EMPEROR FREDERICK--A PENNILESS TRIO--PRINCESS CHARLES--THE PRINCE OF WALES AND PRINCE ALBERT 225 CHAPTER XXXIII THE BEGUM OF BHOPAL PAYS US A VISIT--LORD ROSEBERY AND LORD ANNALY--LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL--LADY BEATTY--LADY JELLICOE AND MRS. ASQUITH 231 CHAPTER XXXIV TUSSAUDâS AS EDUCATOR--QUEER QUESTIONS--WANTED, A âMODELâ WIFE--QUAINT EXTRACT FROM AN INDIANâS DIARY 236 CHAPTER XXXV STARS OF THE STAGE IN MY STUDIO--MISS ELLEN TERRY HAS A CUP OF TEA--SIR SQUIRE AND LADY BANCROFT--SIR HENRY IRVING AND THE CABBY--WE COMPLY WITH A STRANGE REQUEST 242 CHAPTER XXXVI LITERARY SITTERS--GEORGE R. SIMSâ IMPROMPTU--HIS ORDEAL IN THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALAâS MASTERPIECE 249 CHAPTER XXXVII G. A. SALA ON MARIE ANTOINETTE--THE ROYAL FAMILY--THE QUEEN--HER âTRIAL,â CONDEMNATION AND DEATH--THE SANSONS--SALAâS IMPRESSIONS 254 CHAPTER XXXVIII MORE SITTERS--MR. JOHN BURNS WALKS AND TALKS--WE BUY HIS ONLY SUIT--MR. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW HAS TO WORK FOR HIS LIVING--FOUR LEADING SUFFRAGETTES--CHRISTABELâS MODEL âSPEAKSâ--THE CHANNEL SWIMMER--GENERAL BOOTH 275 CHAPTER XXXIX BANK HOLIDAY QUEUES--CUP-TIE DAY--GENTLEMEN FROM THE NORTH--BACHELOR BEANFEASTS--THE MEMBER FOR OLDHAM--A SCARE 282 CHAPTER XL THE MYSTERIOUS SUN YAT SENâS VISIT--HIS ESCAPE FROM THE CHINESE LEGATION--THE DARGAI TABLEAU--SIR WILLIAM TRELOAR ENTERTAINS HIS LITTLE FRIENDS 287 CHAPTER XLI A MISCELLANY OF HUMOUR--OUR POLICEMAN--THE MYSTERIOUS LANTERN--THE DANGER OF OLD CATALOGUES--STORIES OF CHILDREN--SIR ERNEST SHACKLETONâS MODEL 291 CHAPTER XLII THE LURE OF HORRORS--BEGINNINGS OF THE âDEAD ROOMâ--SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A., SKETCHES A SUICIDE--BURKE AND HARE--FIESCHIâS INFERNAL MACHINE--GREENACRE--EXECUTIONS IN PUBLIC--âFREE AT LAST!â 297 CHAPTER XLIII THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS RUMOUR--_NO REWARD HAS BEEN OR WILL BE OFFERED_--THE CONSTABLEâS ESCAPADE--A NOCTURNAL EXPERIENCE--DUMASâS COMEDY OF THE CHAMBER--YEOMEN OF THE HALTER 307 CHAPTER XLIV ANECDOTAL--âWHICH IS PEACE?â--MARK TWAIN AT TUSSAUDâS--DR. GRACEâS STORY--MR. KIPLINGâS MODEL--FILIAL PRIDE--BISHOP JACKSONâS SALLY--GERMAN INACCURACY 315 CHAPTER XLV ENEMY MODELS--A HOSTILE PUBLIC--BANISHMENT OF FOUR RULERS--OUR REPLY TO JOHN BULL--ATTACKS ON THE KAISERâS EFFIGY--STORY OF AN IRON CROSS 320 CHAPTER XLVI TUSSAUDâS DURING THE WAR--CHAMELEON CROWDS--THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COURAGE--MEN OF ST. DUNSTANâS--POIGNANT MEMORIES--OUR WATCHMANâS SOLILOQUY 326 CHAPTER XLVII THREE HEROES OF THE WAR: NURSE CAVELL, JACK CORNWELL, V.C., CAPTAIN FRYATT--LORDS ROBERTS AND KITCHENER--QUEEN ALEXANDRAâS STICK AND VIOLETS--THE DUKE OF NORFOLKâS TIP 335 CHAPTER XLVIII A CRINOLINE COMEDY--MR. BRUCE SMITHâS STORY--AN AMERICAN LADYâS SHILLING--MY FATHERâS MEETING WITH BARNUM--THE âCHERRY-COLOUREDâ CAT--âPAGANINIâ AND THE TAILOR--GEORGE GROSSMITH POSES 341 CHAPTER XLIX WE VISIT THE OLD BAILEY FOR MEMENTOES--A MOCK TRIAL--RELICS OF OLD NEWGATE--TWO FAMOUS CELLS--THE NEWGATE BELL 346 CHAPTER L TUSSAUDâS IN VERSE--TOM HOODâS QUATRAIN--âALFRED AMONG THE IMMORTALSâ--A REFUGE FOR CABINET MINISTERS--TWO DIALOGUES--âTHIS IS FAMEâ 352 CHAPTER LI LAST SCENE OF ALL--MADAME TUSSAUDâS APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER--HER MEMOIRS PUBLISHED IN 1838--HER LAST WORDS 356 ILLUSTRATIONS MADAME TUSSAUD _at the age of 85_ _Frontispiece_ PAGE JOHN THEODORE TUSSAUD 32 CHRISTOPHER CURTIUS 56 LOUIS XVI AND THE DUKE OF ORLÃANS 56 THREE VIEWS OF VOLTAIREâS HEAD 57 âTHE DYING SOCRATESâ 57 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 57 MADAME TUSSAUD _at the age of 20_ 72 MARIE ANTOINETTE, THE DAUPHIN, AND THE DUCHESSE DâANGOULÃME 72 MADAME ELIZABETH OF FRANCE 73 MADAME ELIZABETH OF FRANCE, SISTER OF LOUIS XVI 73 MODEL OF THE BASTILLE 73 M. NECKER 73 CAMILLE DESMOULINS 88 THOMAS CARLYLE 88 MARIE ANTOINETTE 88 JEAN BAPTISTE CARRIER 88 KNIFE, LUNETTE AND CHOPPER OF THE ORIGINAL GUILLOTINE 88 THE GUILLOTINE 89 CHARLOTTE CORDAY 89 JEAN PAUL MARAT 89 MAXIMILIEN MARIE ISIDORE ROBESPIERRE 89 THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE 89 DANTON 89 MADAME TUSSAUD _at the age of 42_ 112 HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES AND SAXE-COBURG 112 THE BRISTOL RIOTS 112 SIR CHARLES WETHERELL 112 HER MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY QUEEN ADELAIDE 113 INTERIOR OF THE EXHIBITION 113 DANIEL OâCONNELL 113 MADAME DE MALIBRAN 113 JOSEPH TUSSAUD 113 THORWALDSENâS CELEBRATED BUST OF THE GREAT NAPOLEON 128 NAPOLEONâS MILITARY CARRIAGE _General View_ 128 NAPOLEONâS MILITARY CARRIAGE _Scene of its capture at Jenappe_ 128 THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE 128 NAPOLEONâS MILITARY CARRIAGE _The Interior_ 129 ARTICLES FOUND IN NAPOLEONâS CARRIAGE 129 NAPOLEONâS BAROUCHE 129 FATHER MATHEW 144 NICHOLAS I 144 VOLTAIREâS CHAIR 145 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 145 WELLINGTON VISITING THE EFFIGY OF NAPOLEON 160 SIR GEORGE HAYTER 160 COLOUR-SERGEANT GILBERT H. BATES 161 WILLIAM COBBETT 161 RICHARD COBDEN 161 JOHN BRIGHT 178 TICHBORNE CLAIMANT 178 DR. LIVINGSTONE 179 THE PRINCE IMPERIAL 179 NAPOLEON III 179 COUNT LÃON 192 EDWARD TRACY TURNERELLI 192 THE TURNERELLI WREATH 192 KING CETEWAYO 193 GENERAL BOULANGER 193 LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH 208 CHARLES BRADLAUGH 208 SIR RICHARD BURTON 209 HEAD OF LORD TENNYSON 209 VISCOUNT HINTON AND HIS ORGAN 240 THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL CRONJE 240 WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 241 SIR SQUIRE BANCROFT 241 BUST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA 288 GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA 288 T. W. BURGESS _The Channel Swimmer_ 288 EFFIGY OF DR. SUN YAT SEN 289 DR. SUN YAT SEN 289 THE CHILDRENâS LORD MAYOR 289 CHARLES PEACE 320 MARQUIS OF HARTINGTON 320 BURKE AND HARE 320 SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE 320 KEY OF THE BASTILLE 320 JOHN WILLIAMS 320 WILLIAM MARWOOD _The Hangman_ 321 DR. JACKSON _Bishop of London_ 321 COUNT ZEPPELIN 321 BISMARCK 321 JACK SHEPPARD 321 THE OLD NEWGATE BELL 321 EDITH CAVELL 352 JACK CORNWELL, V. C. 352 CAPTAIN FRYATT 352 FIELD-MARSHAL EARL KITCHENER 352 ALFRED AUSTIN 353 TOM HOOD 353 FRANCIS TUSSAUD 353 INTRODUCTION BY HILAIRE BELLOC INTRODUCTION BY HILAIRE BELLOC This is a fascinating book and its fascination consists in two things attaching to its subject: first that the famous collection of modelled portraits which has become a sort of national institution in England under the name of âMadame Tussaudâsâ has its roots in the greatest period of modern history, the French Revolution; second, in that the complete and growing record has passed through so many changes and has yet survived. Even though the famous collection had dealt with nothing more than the main figures of the Revolution and of the great wars that followed it, it would have been a possession of permanent and lasting historical value. I am not sure that if it had so remained, stopped short at the effigies of those now long dead, it would not now receive a greater respect. It might well in that case have become something recognised as a national possession, protected and preserved by the national government. For the prolongation of the record right on into our own time, while it very greatly increases the real value of the collection as a piece of historical evidence, yet deprives it of that illusion which men cannot avoid where history is concerned: the illusion that things thoroughly passed are in some way greater and of more consequence than contemporary things. This continuity of the great collection--so long as it is maintained with judgment in selection and without too much yielding to momentary fame is none the less a thing to be very thankful for. Already those of us who, like the present writer, are well on into middle age, can judge how the younger generation is beginning to regard as historical these simulacra, which, when they were first modelled, seemed in our own youth insignificant because they were contemporary. To our children (who are now grown and are young men and women), Disraeli, Gladstone, Bismarck--all the group that were old but living men in the eighties (Disraeli died at the beginning of them, Bismarck long after their close)--are what to us were Louis-Philippe, Garibaldi, Palmerston, and the process properly continued will be invaluable. We have already more than 130 years of record. There is no reason why it should not extend to the two centuries. It often happens that a thing of great value to history, a piece of evidence which we now find invaluable, has come to us by an accident, the motive of its creation not historical at all nor really connected with record. Indeed of the bulk of historical evidence which we use to-day for the reconstruction of the past only a small proportion--official documents--are of the nature of deliberate records. And that proportion of evidence is on the whole the worst as material, for official documents always have a motive underlying them, and they never give one a vivid picture. The great bulk of the material with which we used to build up the past and make it live again for ourselves is accidental. And so it is with this great collection. The motive at first was merely that of a waxwork show. The remarkable woman who created the collection did so as a matter of business. The exhibits were intended to satisfy no more than contemporary curiosity. But they have become a piece of historical evidence which increases in value with every year. Whatever you may read (and the accounts are always contradictory) of some man prominent in the past, whatever picture or sculpture you may find of him (and these are often deliberately flattering or in some other way untrue) the physical impression of him will never be so full and so exact as in the case of an effigy made by a contemporary who saw him, watched him, knew him, _and whose whole motive was exactitude in reproduction_. Here there does indeed arise the question of the medium. You cannot conceive of a better medium than wax among all the known mediums for production of effigies of human beings. Yet it is not perfect. And it is precisely because the likeness is so great, precisely because the effect is so parallel to that of reality, that we note the minor details in which illusion is not achieved. When a man sees a bust of marble he does not expect to find illusion. The greatest portrait statuary can never be more than a symbol. But the wax effigy aims at exact reproduction. To put it in extreme terms, the ideal of the modeller in wax would be to reproduce a figure such that one knowing the original could be deceived and think he had found again his friend dead or sleeping. When a wax effigy reproduces a known and real person, especially a person whom we ourselves have come across, the discrepancy between reality and its copy is clearer. But there is this strong evidence in support of the success which modelling in wax has reached, that where we are dealing with something unknown, some imaginary person, it is possible to create, in spite of the immobility of the figure, an illusion of life. Everyone who has visited these collections will testify to that. With a person whom one has seen in the flesh the little details in which the wax does not tally with the flesh nor immobility with life, stand out clear. That is especially the case with those whose complexion is difficult to imitate. It is also the case in the attachment of the hair. And I have further noticed that the direction of the eyes makes a difference, the figure being more lifelike as a rule when the eyes are cast down or averted, than when a direct look is imitated. But it remains true that with an imaginary person when you are free to suppose that the person had a complexion of the sort easily imitated in wax, and where you are further free to presume the pose, you can get as near to reality in this medium as it is possible for human art to achieve. Therein, then, lies the great value of this thing. It is a witness to history, and as I have said, one increasingly valuable as time proceeds. Still it is with what is chiefly historical in this gallery of figures and _especially with the tradition of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, that we are most concerned_. And the Tussaud collection has this added interest that it sprung as it were from the revolutionary time. Its origins lay in that. Its first fame was due to an emigration from France into England, and it still remains much the best effort at physical reconstruction which we have to-day. The reason is that the lady who founded this institution was not only herself a contemporary of but an actor in the principal events of that time. She came by a series of accidents into direct touch with one personality after another. She left a record of each. She was a personal and convincing witness and her work remains. She is just as much a person of the Revolution and of the Napoleonic period as any one of those whom she modelled for our benefit. And that is (let us remember) of special value _in that one is in the spirit of oneâs time_. The artist deliberately reconstructing a bust through plastic art is always in danger of failing through a lack of the necessary sympathy between the time in which he lives and the time in which his subject lived. The truth of this is expressed very sharply in modern attempts at reconstructing mediÃ¦val sculpture. It has been done. It is singularly successful, for instance, in the central porch of Notre Dame in Paris. But as a rule it fails. The modern man either works from a modern model, or at any rate with modern expressions and modern features at the back of his mind. One conspicuous instance occurs to me, the modern figures upon Lichfield. They are as grievously out of their supposed time as are the figures of Tennysonâs âIdylls of the Kings.â The Knights of the Round Tables of Tennysonâs version are the gentlemen of pegtopped trousers who were contemporary with the poet. They have been to public schools and to universities. They would be horrified at the dropping of aitches, and they have often attended at services which were fully choral. They would have called the inhabitants of the country which they visited ânatives.â That is what Tennyson made of Geraint and Launcelot and his odious Arthur. I am afraid one cannot say much more for the sculptures that I have in my mind. They are dressed in mediÃ¦val armour, but the faces that look out from the helmets are the faces to be seen in the London clubs to-day. They are faces devoid of simplicity and strength. They are not the faces of the Middle Ages. You have the same thing in historical painting, and that is why historical painting usually looks so ridiculous in the generation after it was made. We all know those historical paintings which our grandfathers bought and which still disfigure the large rooms of private houses, where you have Richard I of England charging the Saracens (he, an Angevin!), his face glowing with the emotions of the football field. Now this prime difficulty and error in pictorial and plastic record in the past you can only avoid by the advantage of contemporary work, and this is where the great value of this collection comes in. All its work is contemporary, and we can to-day, after an interval of more than a hundred years, weigh the importance of that point. The revolutionary figures sometimes look odd to us precisely because their real aspect has been so vividly preserved. The hand that modelled Marat was a hand of Maratâs age. It touched the flesh of the dead man. The eyes that received the conception reproduced by the hands, gazed upon Marat himself as he lay back dead. And here it is convenient to introduce that essential character in the great collection--the genius of its originator. The whole thing, its character, long tradition and establishment--is the creation of one remarkable woman, and of her we ought to have some full biography. I know of none. She has at least the rare advantage of having propagated her name justly and the thing she created is identified with her. It is not often that history acts with so little irony and with so much generosity. Her energy was much more remarkable than that of those very few women who have created and organised permanent businesses, for it was not only her judgment and initiative which created the commercial side of the collection: it was also her own talent and industry, the work of her own hands, that laid the foundation of it all. Most of the early portraits were the direct product of her skill and it is from her that the continuous tradition of the place descends. Her sons learnt their art from their mother and carried it on to the third generation which still continues it. It was she who took all the critical decisions, she who steered the fortunes of the family through the crisis of the Revolution, who determined to take the collection over to England, who conceived the idea of making it a permanent record by adding contemporaries year after year. It is not often that one has this intimate admixture of personality with an institution, and when one gets it it has an astonishing effect in vivifying the whole. When an institution is thus the product of a character at once highly energetic and highly individual, it is as though a living thing continued on long beyond the term of a human life. It is, in the strict and original sense of the word, âinspired.â You get that quality, of course, in all literature, and in some of the corporations which remarkable men and women have founded, but very rarely in a piece of business in an institution of affairs. Here you get it, and the more you read of the womanâs life and character the more you understand the success of her effort and its vitality. [Illustration: JOHN THEODORE TUSSAUD] It was an astonishing life! There lies behind it the story of her uncle Curtius, a Swiss who left medical practice in the middle of the 18th century and took to modelling in wax. It was a taste which had grown upon him from his habit of modelling parts of the human body for the purposes of his profession. He extended it to portraits and at last he abandoned medicine for his new art. He had firmly established himself in it and had already been taken up by members of the French Royal Family who had visited Switzerland, when under their protection he left for Paris. And there his sister, Madame Grosholtz, and her child, then five or six years old, joined him. There she learnt her uncleâs trade and thence in her twentieth year she went to live at Versailles as a sort of companion to Madame Elizabeth, Louis XVIâs sister, a girl about four years older than herself. She was the close friend and companion of the princess right up to the moment of the Revolution. Madame Elizabeth like her brother had a delight in manual work. With her it took the form of modelling under the guidance of Marie Grosholtz and it was these nine years that formed the character and that remained the liveliest memory throughout all the very long life that this remarkable woman was to live. It would be interesting to discover (I know of no such document that could tell me, but there must be some) whether the young companion whom Madame Elizabeth thus took under her protection, and to whom she thus gave a unique opportunity for the observation of contemporary life, was in race German or French. Berne would seem to be the origin of the family, and the uncleâs Latin name and the family name of his brother-in-law point to German origin. All his associations on the other hand were French, and when he came to Paris it was hardly as a foreigner. The story reads as though they were French-speaking on their arrival. Perhaps in some future edition of the work this point will be settled. It is one of considerable moment to our judgment of the art. It was a moment when the connection between Switzerland and French society was very close. It was to Switzerland that Voltaire had retired. It was from Switzerland that the genius of Rousseau proceeded. The unfortunate Necker, with his caution and his avarice, played his great part in the early Revolution as a Swiss. To Switzerland also he went back when he had failed--and there, by the way, in his retirement we have an amusing picture of him listening to the daily recital of the news from Paris as the Revolution proceeded, wagging his head solemnly, and perpetually saying, âI told you so.â Madame de StaÃ«l, his famous daughter, whom Pitt so much desired to marry for her money, and whom Napoleon so hated, was thoroughly Swiss. She shows it in every line of her writing. She is from the heart of Geneva in her traditions and ideas. The family coming thus to Paris were part of a general movement and even their connection with Versailles can be paralleled. It would not have taken much, had things proceeded quietly, for Switzerland to have fallen into the orbit of the French monarchy within the next hundred years. After these nine formative years in the continued company of Madame Elizabeth, Marie Grosholtz enters the Revolution, and the connections of the family with the origins of the great upheaval are close, curious, and of intense interest. It was, it will be remembered, the bust of Necker from the collection of Curtius, then on exhibition, which the mob carried round at the beginning of the insurrection. The show of figures already well-known in Paris became the starting-point for the future collection. It was because the Revolutionaries from the very beginning of the movement showed so much acquaintance with those effigies that the continuous stream of further portraits began. That is why Marie Grosholtz was sent for time after time to take a death mask, to model a famous living man, to establish what afterwards became the invaluable record we still have. From 1787-89, the preliminary years when she was already at work, right on to 1802, a matter of 15 years, the most crowded of all history, the newly developed art went on actively without interruption. There is not, I think, in all history a parallel to so astonishing and lucky a chance. It was almost as though fate had designed a reporter, or a state portraitist for the benefit of posterity. You do get the same thing now and then in the shape of a chronicler who happens to keep out of the turmoil and mark the detail of his time, but it is extremely rare and in the case of plastic art, unique. The nearest parallel to-day--which may raise a smile on account of the extreme difference in time and manner--is that of Holbeinâs portraits of the English Court. There also you get the living record marvellously preserved for future times. It is to our advantage that the character of this foundress does not diminish in energy with the passage of time. We see her doing the work of three people all through the years of her middle age and making decision after decision upon the fortunes of her house. And while she was thus conducting with one hand the financial side of the business, with the other she was herself still modelling perpetually, and with a third and quite separate faculty she was creating a school of her own, as it were, for the continuation of the modelling after her time. If ever there was the maker of an important thing it was this woman and if ever there was an important thing proceeding entirely from one individual, that thing is the collection which still remains to us. There is a sort of parallel which can be drawn between Madame Tussaud and Madame Campan. Both of them have seen, and worked at, the Palace of Louis XVI, under and in connection with his Queen. Both were much of an age, Madame Campan eight years senior to Madame Tussaud. Both lived on through the Revolution and the Empire, the one till 1822, the other beyond the revolutionary year of 1848. Both had something of the same strength. Both carried on the tradition of the old attachment to the Bourbons. Both have left the legend of a strong personality, the one through an effect on education in France which was deeper than has been generally recognised, the other in a more lasting manner through her plastic work. In this connection one muses upon what would have been Madame Tussaudâs fate had she continued her career in the country where it had begun, and had she not taken over the collection in its origins to England at the Peace of Amiens. I think she would have been a great figure in the France of the Restoration and of the bourgeois Monarchy. A continuous unbroken link with all the great years up to 1848 and presenting a whole gallery of the past for a new generation to witness would have been something the French and Paris would have made much of, and a great deal that was lost on the other side of the Channel through lack of understanding would have been preserved. I mean that too many of those figures were for those who saw them in an alien atmosphere jests or shades, whereas in France they would have been an intimate part of the great national story. This removal to England also in some degree affected the proportion of the collection and in the same degree diminished its great international value. Not that figures of international moment had not been included--the great figures are all there--but that Paris would have been a better general centre for watching and recording the moving history of the 19th century, than London. The MusÃ©e Grevin in Paris supplemented the Tussaud collection in England. One imagines that it would have been better for history as a whole had one great collection, preferably in Paris, served for a permanent and continuous chronicle of what living men had been. When we come to details of the personalities from the period before the Revolution to the Peace of Amiens (the foundation of the whole Exhibition) we are struck, I think, by the great difference in our appreciation. Some of the figures are just what we should have thought these men would have been. Others offend us or puzzle us by what seems to us discrepancy. But we must remember that the error is in ourselves and not in the contemporary record. Of the great historical figures Voltaire (which is the first of them) is least specially illuminated by what I may call âthe Tussaud tradition.â And that is because we already know pretty well all that there is to know about Voltaire. His story was a simple one, his genius obvious, not complex, and the time of life in which Madame Tussaudâs uncle came to sculp him (to model his face in wax) was just at the very end, when public fame and his own great pride in himself had combined to put him into full evidence, even to the details of his daily life. It was just at the end of that life, in 1778, that Voltaire sat to Curtius, Madame Tussaudâs uncle, the original founder of the whole gallery, and the tutor of his niece in her art. It is interesting to compare the little miniature (one of several) which Curtius made--it is far more lifelike than the larger figure--with the famous Houdon. Houdonâs is much the greater thing, of course, and the more living, but though Houdon was the greatest of portraitists by far, the greatest renderer of the human face that ever lived, there is something intimate in the little wax miniature of Curtius which no great sculptor could have given. For instance, you have here admitted, as it were, almost photographed, the domestic insufficient quality of Voltaireâs famous smile. Houdon could not help making that smile--or grin--have something heroic about it; or at any rate great. But the Tussaud work undoubtedly shows you the thing as it actually was; as his servants and his intimates saw it. I learn, by the way, from this book (I had not known it before) that Houdon had himself worked for Curtius--a considerably older man--and the connection is as curious as it is interesting. It is striking to find a record of the connection in this book, but not astonishing that it should be absent from others, for there has been no good comprehensive work on Houdon written that I can recollect. I am told that there is some German encyclopÃ¦dic work or other but no proper study of the man and his life. Next after Voltaire we have to note side by side with the collection a small work of Curtiusâs own in miniature, the very striking profile of the Duke of OrlÃ©ans. How it helps one to understand that base and extraordinary career! Everyone reading the story of the Revolution should concentrate upon that manâs ambition, weakness and intrigue. The origin of the whole business was his false idea (unfortunately for himself confirmed by circumstances for many years) that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would have no children. He came to regard himself as the heir, and the natural result was that when the first child came after so perplexing a delay (a delay the cause of which I have explained in an appendix to my own monograph on Marie Antoinette) Philippe ÃgalitÃ© felt himself aggrieved. His grievance was illogical and unjust, but it was there and in that grievance you find no small part of the motive force that impelled the early Revolution. The family tradition carried on by the Tussauds from the Revolution was what may be described as the âorthodoxâ tradition. It is the tradition which appears in this book. I am not sure that the historian can wholly agree with it. This âorthodoxâ tradition is the tradition of an equable and happy society overthrown into a sort of chaos at the head of which chance scoundrels floated, each to disappear in turn, struck by a sort of anarchic doom proceeding from their fellow anarchs. The Revolution was rather a resettlement of society from a state which had become unstable to a new and more stable state, and its leaders were upon the whole, though suffering under the exaggeration from which leaders at such a time invariably suffer, men of capacity--especially on the military side. Further, those who were made responsible in popular tradition for the worst excesses were hardly the principal authors of them. Thus, the real director of what is called the Terror was Carnot, not Robespierre. Carnot was a perfectly sane man and a genius to boot, attached to the new democratic principle, but a soldier, and working for the highly practical ends which a soldier has in view. He thought of the Terror as a piece of martial law, and it is significant that under his direction by far the greater number of those who suffered in Paris suffered through a direct breach of the temporary regulations (such as those against the export of money or communication with the enemy) which were necessary for the prosecution of the campaign. Robespierre was not the director of the Terror at all. He was a man singularly restricted in nature, but of powerful effect in oratory in spite of his close academic style. He was a man of complete sincerity, much too narrow in doctrine, but because he exactly expressed with more lucidity than anyone else, and with more conviction, what was the passionate creed of the time, he became for something like two years at once the idol and the symbol of the revolutionary masses. As the Terror looked like an intensive application of the Revolution men associated it with Robespierreâs name, and Robespierre, suffering from the very grave defect of vanity (common in men who reach a public position), was willing to allow the false imputation, and to enjoy the title of ruler, when he was really in the Central Council of the Republic, singularly impotent. He paid a heavy price for that falsehood. It cost him his life and--what was worse--his reputation. What we know positively of Robespierreâs action during the Terror is that he attended the Central Council less and less frequently, and that he tried, if anything, to stop the Terror. In fact it was precisely on this account, his interference with the rigour of the martial law, that his enemies brought him to the guillotine. But, by a curious irony not uncommon in history, the death of this man who was not the leader of the Terror, and who had if anything attempted to check it, and who was put to death because he attempted to check it, caused the Terror to cease. Men had so universally (and so falsely) identified him with the extremity of the republican military rÃ©gime that when he passed it was impossible to continue it. In the matter of Marat what I may call âthe Tussaud traditionâ is sounder. The man was unbalanced to the point of lunacy, and when Madame Tussaud was called in to take the impression of his face just after death, her use of the word âfiendâ though exaggerated is comprehensible. This effigy of Marat which you may see in the famous gallery and which was modelled immediately after his death--an immediate piece of historical evidence of the first value--was shown in Paris when it was completed. It is an astonishing thing to have that piece of continuity with us. But all these death masks of the Revolution are of the highest value. There is an extraordinary dignity in the full features of the Queen, looking younger than she did in the last years of her life, and a singular and awful reality in the mask of Robespierre. I know only two representations of Robespierre which really recall the man. One is this effigy exactly modelled from the face itself after these last thirty-six hours of agony, and the other is the portrait which Greuze made of him and which is now in Lord Roseberyâs collection. And of these two, of course, the death mask, though repulsive, is the more actual. But of all these revolutionary figures, by far the most interesting to me is that of Carrier. The contrast between that strongly exact, clearly cut face and the story of Carrierâs madness at Nantes, is one of the things that make one understand not only the Revolution but in general mankind at white heat. Here is a man who, if features mean anything, might have been some sharp, self-contained, disappointed, ironic speaker, or even poet. It is the face of a man who certainly knew his own mind, who despised other men, which is a weakness, but who followed some great idea within. It is a face human in its self-repression and exactitude. Were we familiar with it in connection with some great name of peaceable activity, were it the face of one of those who settled the Congress of Vienna, or of some monarch, or of some writer, it would be famous as an index of genius. As it is, the name--especially to those who do not know the face--suggests nothing but a mad infamy, and indiscriminate shooting and drowning in batches of the wretched Vendean prisoners. And I myself when writing thus of Carrier have a right to be balanced in my judgment for he came very near to guillotining my grandfatherâs father, from whom he differed in politics. And here in the case of Carrier is an excellent example of the historical value of that which I postulate as the first, much the greatest, character in a collection such as this: for had we not the bust of the living Carrier, itself almost a living thing, taken immediately after death, we should hardly have guessed what Carrier was. But the face combined with the history explains him well enough. The story of Madame Tussaud seeking for Sansonâs guillotine, or rather for one of his guillotines after the Peace of Amiens and sending her son over to Paris to look for the man and his implements (which the executioner had pawned) and getting it at last at great cost, is characteristic of her energy and business sense. She lived at a time when the material relic was the _clou_ of her collection. If to-day it rather detracts from the sober historical value of the figures, it remains an excellent witness to her indefatigable initiative. And so it is with the collection of Napoleonic relics, notably the Waterloo carriage, which she secured just at the moment when it was of the greatest value to her business. Her modelling of the dead in the revolutionary time included, by her own account, the head of the Princess de Lamballe, when that unfortunate and rather insipid young woman (but gracious and kind) was so foolishly and so atrociously murdered. The record would seem to correspond more or less with the judgment of Michelette, and Micheletteâs portrait mostly produced by chance illusion is the best I know. In the fate of all those men and women, but particularly in that of Madame de Lamballe, the main element of tragedy is their bewilderment. They could not conceive what cause or motive lay behind the fierce hatred which concentrated upon them. It was for them a nightmare, something irresponsible like a cataclysm of nature, and yet something human, and something that ought, therefore, to be explicable. Oddly enough the one person who did get a glimmer of the human motive at work was Marie Antoinette herself. It is astonishing how rapidly not only the general character but the intelligence of Marie Antoinette developed in these years. She became the true daughter of Maria Theresa--too late! They suffered (of course) through that illusion which is the curse of publicity. They were tortured and they were killed for a label, not for their very selves. But the tragedy is increased in their case, I think, because they did not seek publicity. Your politician, often a mountebank, whose appetite is for strutting upon a stage, who loves the limelight, whose meat and drink it is to hear his name repeated perpetually by the populace, deserves what he gets. And he nearly always gets what the fates reserve for such vanities. In a greater or less degree these creators of their own label suffer in the end: at the least disappointment and neglect, at the most death. But as I have said they deserve what comes to them. They have had their reward. It was not so with the stable hereditary publicity of the Bourbon royal family and its adherents. They could not help the light which beat upon them. They did not seek it. The absurd legends in which any public figure is necessarily clothed as with a wrap of falsehood is not one of their seeking or of their making. They suffer for those legends and for the consequences of those legends precisely after the fashion which dramatic irony demands that the victim of any great tragedy should suffer--in spite of themselves and with no understanding of how the thing came. What could be more ridiculous than the figment of Louis XV--obese, good-natured, slow, irresolute in morals, irresolute in policy--as a tyrant. Or what could be more absurd than the fiction of a libertine Marie Antoinette? Or of a democratic Duke of OrlÃ©ans? Or of a patriot Necker? It was, I think, this element of undeserved and awfully ironic tragedy which burnt into the soul of all those who had come into contact with the harmless but sometimes dignified and always splendid circle of Versailles. One of the few sincere emotions of Burkeâs life was, I think, the moment when he broke out into rhetoric on the fate of the Queen. This middle-class man had seen her, and the grotesque disproportion between herself and her fate moved him to real feeling. It is to his credit, for not many things that Burke said were genuine. He was an advocate taking pay from people who wanted arguments and I think he would have argued just as well for better pay on the other side. This appassionate sympathy with and support of the victims was very conspicuous in Madame Tussaud herself. And she carried it through the whole of that period when she was at first unwillingly modelling the revolutionaries, often with disgust compelled to take the mask of a dead face, or later (she was in prison with Josephine) associated with the figures of the period of the Directorate and the Consulship. Of those personal interviews when that handsome woman now in middle age was still engaged at her task of modelling and sculpture in wax, there is none of which we would rather have a full record than the modelling of Napoleon. It is mentioned in Mr. Tussaudâs book only by way of quotation from a contemporary journal--the _Belle AssemblÃ©e_. It would be interesting to know if there is any family record giving full details, for we have not even the date, though we have the hour of the day--six oâclock in the morning--that she first met the Emperor. He was not Emperor yet and we can fix an inferior and a superior limit easily enough for the portrait was made at the Tuileries, after Napoleon as First Consul had gone there, and before the Peace of Amiens. It must, therefore, have fallen within a period of only just over two years; it must have been done either in 1800 or in 1801. It is in connection with Napoleon that the shifting of values, which I have suggested took place through the transference of the collection to England, may be noted. The exhibition once fixed in London took on the English point of view and to that extent distorted a full European impression. For instance, one of the great features in the story of the collection is the visit of the Duke of Wellington to the effigy of Napoleon, and a well-known and almost famous picture was made of the incident. I am old enough to
{'title': "The Romance of Madame Tussaud's by John Theodore Tussaud", 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}