The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. Two things about her life are especially noteworthy. First, she spent her early years amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and came to meet many of the characters involved; second, and perhaps more unusually, she succeeded in business at a time when women were rarely involved in the world of commerce.

From housekeeper's daughter to royal tutor, master model maker and thriving businesswoman, escape from the guillotine and a spell making death masks of her former aristocratic friends and employers, her life has all the hallmarks of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Madame Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in 1761 and christened Marie Grosholtz. Her father, a soldier, was killed in battle during the Seven Years War (waged by Prussia and Britain against Austria, France and Russia) only two months before Marie’s birth. For the first five years of her life Marie lived in Berne with her widowed mother, who worked as housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius. A doctor, with a talent for wax modelling, Curtius became her mentor and guardian.

It was Curtius who opened the original wax exhibition in Paris in 1770 and introduced Marie to some of the leading luminaries of the time. At only 17, she modelled the renowned writer and philosopher Francois Voltaire, followed by a portrait of American statesman Benjamin Franklin when he was in Paris as US ambassador. Both figures are still on display at Madame Tussaud’s London today.

Her talent did not go unnoticed and her work at Curtius’ successful wax exhibition led to an invitation to the court of Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette. For nine years she lived at the palace of Versailles supervising the artistic education of the king’s sister and enjoying the splendour of royal life. Meanwhile France was on the brink of revolution. Aware of the political unrest and discontent sweeping the country, Philippe Curtius called Marie back to Paris.

Paris became the centre of a bloody revolution that rocked Europe. Everybody came under the scrutiny of Robespierre and his bloody henchmen and Marie’s connections with the royal family made her ‘guilty by association’. Both she and her mother were arrested and imprisoned, sharing a cell with Napoleon’s future empress Josephine. Their heads were shaved in preparation for a gruesome execution by guillotine, a fate they only narrowly escaped.

On release, Marie’s courage was again put to the test when she was forced to take death masks of executed nobles. Many were former friends from her time at court, including her former employers, the king and queen. Some of these death masks survived and can still be seen at Madame Tussaud’s.

Life after the French Revolution brought new problems. By 1800 Marie was married with two young children and an ailing business inherited from Curtius six years earlier. Ever a shrewd and adventurous businesswoman, Madame Tussaud made the decision to take her exhibition on tour. In 1802, she left France and her husband for England.

For the next 33 years, Madame Tussaud travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles, exhibiting her growing collection of portraits to admiring and curious crowds. In those pre-television days, this was the only way most people had direct contact with celebrities of the time and they loved it. The exhibition became permanently based in London in 1835, moving to its present site in Marylebone Road in 1884.

With her sons, Madame Tussaud built her exhibition into one of the capital’s leading attractions and she remained actively involved in its running almost to the end of her life. Her last work, a remarkable self-portrait that is still on show, was completed only eight years before her death aged 89. She was an incredible woman. A true survivor, she lived through some of the most turbulent events in history, and at a time when women stayed at home and looked after children, she was a successful artist, showman and businesswoman.

Her vision lives on at Madame Tussaud’s today. The appeal of the exhibition has evolved over the past 200 years, keeping pace with public interest and always offering guests a unique opportunity to interact with the famous and the infamous.

Long after her death in 1850, the legacy of this tiny but indomitable Frenchwoman continues to flourish. Over 2.5 million guests visit Madame Tussaud’s each year and the exhibition that still bears her name is now firmly established as London’s top attraction.

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