When Madame Tussauds' curious wax works came to Calcutta

Madame Tussauds' has announced that it will be opening its first museum in India at New Delhi by the end of 2017. This iconic two-century old institution will finally allow the enthusiasts in India to rub shoulders with their idols, well, at least with their lifelike wax forms. The addition of the popular Indian icons particularly from Bollywood has made Madame Tussaud’s endearing to the Indian audiences for quite sometime and certainly, a must visit for most traveling to London. But India’s connection to Marie Tussaud the woman who founded the eponymous institution or to be more specific, her curious wax works goes long back in history. The connection stretches back even before Tussaud settled in London and founded her celebrated museum in Marylebone. In this post, we will go back in time and explore this forgotten phase, when the precursor of the Madam Tussaud’s iconic exhibition flourished briefly in India.

The practice of public exhibition of wax figures goes back to the middle-ages. In Europe, lifelike wax figures or effigies of deceased members of the royal families were commonly paraded on royal funeral ceremonies. Following the Renaissance, these wax statues were put to use for more practical purposes. For a long time procuring corpses presented a perennial problem, for the students of medicine and anatomy. So, wax statues began to be used as an alternative of cadavers for teaching anatomy to the aspiring physicians. Philippe Curtius, a physician from Berne, became well-known for achieving perfection in creating such anatomical wax figures. Prince de Conte, a cousin of Louis XV, the French Emperor, while visiting Berne was so impressed with Curtius’models that he immediately offered to patronise Curtius if he decided to turn his talents to portraiture from medicine and sets up an exhibition in Paris. An offer that Curtius readily accepted and relocated to Paris. His first exhibition consisting of life-like wax figures of the celebrities of the day took place in 1770.

Philippe Curtius

Curtius was accompanied to Paris by his housekeeper and her daughter, Marie Gresholtz. Curtius, a bachelor, adopted the daughter of his housekeeper, who soon became an able assistant in Curtius’ exhibition. Curtius’ exhibition at Paris, titled Cabinet de Cire was initially open only to a few invited guests but the exhibition generated enough popular interest and it was soon opened to the public at the Palais Royale. In 1782, Curtius inaugurated a second exhibition at Boulevard du Temple. It was at Boulevard du Temple, that Curtius introduced the Caverne des grands voleurs or the Chamber of Horrors to his exhibition. The Chamber of Horrors, which initially exhibited lifelike figures of notorious criminals of the day, had remained a chief attraction of the Madame Tussaud’s ever since.

Curtius’ exhibition assumed a newer significance a few years later in 1789 when the revolution broke out in Paris. Curtius himself took part in the storming of the Bastille and at the close of the year was presented with an inscribed musket as recognition for being one of the Vainqueurs de la Bastille. The musket is still preserved at the Madame Tussaud’s. Curtius’ was also given the duty of ‘archiving’ the sacrifices made at the altar of the revolution from its initial phase. During the revolution, Curtius and young Mary were kept busy in creating wax models of the heads severed in the guillotine.

In 1793, the mistrust among the revolutionaries gave another turn to the French Revolution, A ‘reign of terror’ was launched as the enemies of revolutionaries were identified and hunted down, Philippe Curtius too fell out of favor, so did his cabinet of curious wax collection. With the business going slow, in 1794, Curtius sent a part of his collection to be exhibited in India under the care of Dominick Laurency, an Italian showman.  

Laurency targeted the English audiences of Calcutta and Madras.  The two major strongholds of the English East India Company were selected as venues for the exhibition. However, we do not have information about how the collection was transported for such long distance and how the wax models were protected from the tropical climate in India. The little information about the exhibitions that have survived is available to us from contemporary newspaper reports and Laurency’s advertisement of the event. The Calcutta Gazette suggests that exhibition opened in Calcutta during the festive season of December 1794. The Gazette though is silent about the venue of the exhibition and the duration of which the collection remained in the city. But we can be certain from the advertisement that appeared in Madras Gazette that, by the month of  August, the collection had reached the port of Madras. The advertisement suggested that how the exhibition was received with admiration in Europe and keeping in mind the audience, made particular mention of London in this regard. The advertisement also offers a detailed account of the what was on exhibit. Twenty wax models which formed part of Curtius’ Cabinet de Cire were exhibited here, These twenty wax models mostly included figures of the Ancien Régime, including the late French monarch Louis XVI, Dauphin, the prince, as well as the emperor’s brothers and duchesses. The monarch from other countries, such as Frederick the Prussian emperor, Joseph II, the German emperor and the Russian emperor were also part of the exhibition. The exhibition also did not miss out some of the leading lights of the French Revolution, like Count Mirabeau and ‘celebrated French authors’ like Voltaire and Rousseau. The Chambers of Horrors though did not form a part of the exhibition, there were other exhibits with links to the French Revolution, Alongside a scale model of the fort of Bastille there was an elaborate model depicting the beheading of Joseph Foulon the imperial finance minister on guillotine. The life likeness of the model with “blood seems to be streaming from the severed head and running on the ground” generated much interest among the viewers. Another attraction of the exhibition was the ‘Optic of Zaler’, an optical illusion showing sunrise over the capital cities of Europe. However, we do not know how long the exhibition was in India. Curtius though had already passed away in late 1794. Curtius’ Cabinet though was exhibited in his name for in Paris till 1800 by Marie Tussaud, who inherited the collection. The story of Curtius’ Cabinet de Cire, came to an end in 1802, when Marie, already separated from her husband, moved to London permanently.