Tussaud, Joseph (SCC Newsletter January 2009)

Joseph Tussaud 1796 - c. 1865

"son of Madame T."

The importance of the gold ear and caravat.

Above is a drawing of Madame Tussaud, the founder of the famous waxworks exhibition. It is by her younger son Frances. Beside her is a photograph of Joseph himself "in old age". This is from Mrs. McK's archives.

The Family Background.

Various reference books I have consulted give a date of 1802 for the year the Tussaud Family came to England - although the Book gives the date as 1815. Be that as it may. What is certain is that as soon as the family arrived in England they started to hold their Waxwork Exhibition in various towns all over the country. When Joseph was about nineteen years of age he added his silhouette talents to the show. Until 1828 at least the family travelled with the show - amongst the towns they visited were Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds, Colchester, Sheffield, Norwich and many others. So they did not let the grass grow under their feet! They paid at least one visit to Scotland. After 1828 they established their permanent home in London. As far as we know Joseph continued to paint silhouettes until 1837. Little is recorded about Joseph's own family life except that he married and had two daughters and a son—although all direct descendents come from his brother Francis as he did not have any grandchildren.

His work.

Joseph is an artist whose extant works seem to be few and far between. Mrs McK, was only able to illustrate one bust-length example in her Book. I have managed to acquire two bust-lengths of men during my collecting career - either had a signature or an inscription. Both were attributed on stylistic grounds. In his advertisements Joseph stated that he painted in plain black, but I have only come across gilded examples that I could definitely attribute to him. It seems that ladies by him are not easy to find, although some years ago I viewed a mixed lot at Christie's, S. Kensington, which consisted of a woman and two men by him - again there was no attribution. The woman was easily recognisable on stylistic grounds. All the examples I will be illustrating on the next page are gilded in Joseph's typical style.

Mrs McK. in her Book compares the artist's gilding skills to those of John Field -although she does add not so fine". Also, she mentions Mrs Edward Smythe as being comparable. Mrs Smythe is a very underrated artist in my view - her gold highlighting was very delicate and detailed. Joseph made no secret of the fact that he used a machine to obtain his out-lines. AIso, as I shall mention later he had other talents - he was able to draw and to model in wax.

Tussaud Page 2

Above on the left is William Horne. He is illustrated in the Book on page 504 illus. 938. This image is taken from an archive photograph. He is inscribed on the reverse as being by Tussaud and dated l5th September 1827. On his right are the two silhouettes from my Collection. As you will see all three are painted in the same style. The base colour is black with skilful and restrained gold highlighting on hair and clothing. The highlighting at the top of the sleeve is quite significant in making an attribution, but the most important ‘tool' in my view is the black and gold cravat combined with the gilded ear. Most artists of this period left men's cravats white or used a thinned watercolour to give some 'depth'. The bust-line termination on all three is consistent, but very similar to other artists of the period. All are painted on thick stiff card and housed in standard papier mache frames with a star hanger.

Below are illustrated three further examples in my view of Joseph's work. On the left is a middle aged gent from a sale at Christie's S. Kensington on 5th October 2004 (Lot 8) He was part of a multiple lot and not attributed by the auction house. Next to him is a lady in the same lot - she was attributed to Mrs Smythe but not by her I think. On her right is a young boy sold at Bonhams, Bury St. Edmunds on 8th December 2004 (Lot 257). He was sold with another similar boy and both were unattributed.

His Advertisements and Prices

No Printed label has come to light and there is no evidence that Joseph signed his work either on the obverse or the reverse. However, he did regularly advertise his talents in the local newspapers for the towns that the Exhibition visited. It is not surprising that he traded on the fact that he was “Son of the Great Madame Tussaud”! Also, he was quite fulsome about the quality of his work.

Tussaud Page 3

Generally he made a point of addressing the nobility of the area presumably hoping for some distinguished customers! On some of his advertisements he would quote from Lavater as follows:- "Profile shades are the purest and most perfect resemblance that can be obtained". I think he was in no doubt that he was able to produce a good likeness! As well as his ability to paint silhouettes he stated that he could provide biographical and descriptive sketches of the whole length composition figures and other works of art forming the unrivalled collection of Madame Tussaud etc, Mrs. McK was not quite clear what he meant by this statement but thinks that he probably sketched models from the Waxwork Exhibition -possibly for advertising purposes or perhaps for clients who wanted a drawing of a particular waxwork. Whatever the reason I think it indicates that he was able to draw and had some artistic talents. Unlike many silhouette artists of his period whom I suspect had little or no artistic skills!.

Joseph's prices in his early days were 2s-3s. Later he charged up to 7s depending on the style of the profile. In his final years as a silhouette artist he seems to have reduced his prices to 3s for bronzed and 1/6d for black. I think a plain black example would be difficult to attribute with certainty - although the consistency of his outlines many be the clue!

His Group Portraits

Mrs. Jackson mentions in her "Notes & (Queries" that Joseph mounted his portraits as groups on occasions—giving these groups a painted scenery as a background. Unfortunately there is only one illustration of such a group, which I have reproduced above from another photograph in Mrs. McK's archives. The original work has been so Mrs. McK was not able to examine it to look at the detail of the highlighting in particular. It is of members of the Tussaud family and is illustrated in the Book on page 505 illus. 939. It was painted c. 1835-37. The photograph was given to John Woodwiss by one of Joseph's nephews - he then lost the photograph but it eventually turned up in the material he left to Mrs. McK on his death. The lady playing the harp is Joseph’s wife - she was considered to be a fine performer on the harp. On the far left is Madam Tussaud - her figure has possibly been taken from a cut-out silhouette of her by Alfred Herve in the Book on page 315 illus. 446. This I have illustrated on the left of the group silhouette. Mrs. McK suggests that Joseph used Herve's figure for his conversation piece rather than Herve did a cut-out from Joseph's version. It is not possible to know which way round it was, but there is no doubt that the Herve and Tussaud Families were friends as they came from similar backgrounds.