Rodama: a blog of 18th-century & Revolutionary France

The first and the oldest (exhibition of waxes) is that of Citizen Curtius, boulevard du Temple [....].  The second is that of Citizen Orsy, ...

Jean Baptiste Le Sueur, Première scène de la Révolution française à Paris, 12 juillet 1789, c. 1792-95.  Musée Carnavalet, Paris Ev...

"For several years he has shown the Royal Family, several foreign princes, and almost all the famous people of our times" .   Alm...

The model of the Turk Mustapha Ali is singled out for particular mention by Mayeur de Saint-Paul in his well-informed account  of Curtius...

Curtius's early life Apart from the questionable details supplied by the Tussaud Memoirs, little is known about the early history ...

On Thursday 23rd February BBC Four broadcast "Marie Tussaud: a legend in wax":  Programme website  http://www.bbc.co.uk/prog...

The wax effigy of Benjamin Franklin was an attraction at Curtius's  Salon de Cire, a stalwart of the early Tussaud exhibitions in Engla...

S LEEPING BEAUTY:  This portrayal of Madame du Barry, later the mistress of Madame du Barry (1743-1793) was modelled by Philippe Curti...

I was not going to write any more about Madame Tussaud and dead Revolutionaries, but in the end I've decided that the specul...

Andrew Graham-Dixon's Art of France is currently being broadcast by the BBC. On the website is this intriguing video - it is describ...