The Romance of Madame Tussaud'sTussaud, John Theodore
History
The Romance of Madame Tussaud's
Tussaud, John Theodore
Madame Tussaud and Sons' Exhibition; Tussaud, Marie, 1761-1850; Waxworks
There is also the inevitable snapshotter, who neither asks permission nor
cares whether it is granted or not. Such individuals seize an opportunity
when few persons are about and take an illicit “negative” without risking
a verbal one. The result has been that the photographs thus secured--all
subject to copyright fees never collected--have been made use of for
all kinds of purposes; they have turned up as blocks in newspapers and
magazines, illustrations in books, and portrait postcards, besides being
treasured in albums and framed as pictures.
Only very occasionally has a statement accompanied publication
acknowledging the source from which the picture has originated--a
circumstance that has more than once led to a curious and, so far as the
artist is concerned, a somewhat vexatious contretemps.
It has so happened that we have had sometimes to send a member of our
staff in quest of all the latest photographs of a favourite celebrity
whose figure we have desired to remodel and bring up to date. Not
infrequently has he brought back with him “photographs” purporting to
have been taken from life, but which have been instantly recognised as
reproductions of figures in the Exhibition.
A droll incident once occurred illustrative of this strange situation.
Many years ago, when Mr. Joseph Tussaud, under pressure of time and with
very meagre material to go upon, produced a portrait of the late Pope
Leo XIII directly after he was elevated to the papal chair, a certain
well-known firm of photographers were at their wits’ end to obtain a
portrait of the new Pontiff, and the novel idea suggested itself to
them of arranging to borrow for a short time Madame Tussaud’s model,
and therefrom obtain an original negative that might fulfil their
requirements. This they accordingly did, and the object was achieved with
remarkable success, for the portrait challenged detection. So lifelike
was the picture that when it was placed upon the market beholders
concluded that the Pope had sat for it.
Another firm of photographers, some time afterwards, and at great trouble
and expense, succeeded in obtaining sittings from the Pope himself.
When the portrait taken from life appeared, and was compared with the
photographs from the model, very grave doubt was raised as to whether the
new portrait was really a good likeness, and many persons questioned its
genuineness, much to the chagrin of the photographers who produced it.
CHAPTER XX
The story of Colour-Sergeant Bates’s march through England to
prove Anglo-American goodwill--Start from Gretna--The dove of
peace.
An ephemeral celebrity of a bygone day, who fittingly comes into the
picture at the present time--for we are still dealing with events that
happened in the seventies--was Colour-Sergeant Gilbert H. Bates, of the
24th Massachusetts (U. S. Artillery) Regiment.
[Illustration: COLOR-SERGEANT GILBERT H. BATES OF THE 24TH MASSACHUSETTS
(U. S. ARTILLERY) REGIMENT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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