ALL IN PARIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1938, Page 5

ALL IN PARIS

LEADERS OF FOUR POWERS.

WAXWORKS EXHIBITION.

Mr Neville Chamberlain, M. Daladier, Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini are in Paris permanently. They face each other with determination written on their countenances in the waxworks exhibition of the Musee Grevin, the French Madame Tussaud’s where hundreds -of visitors pass before them every day. The waxworks exhibition which harbours these great men is on the main Boulevards. It has a small, almost insignificant entrance and yet it is known throughout the whole of France, and no one ever comes from the provinces without visiting it. It is indeed better known in the provinces than in Paris. Much smaller than Madame Tussaud’s, the Musee Grevin all the same contains more than 700 figures. Portrait figures are few, although among them King George VI and Queen Elizabeth hold a place of honour. By far the greater part of the waxworks is given up to groups and is justly famous for its fine and realistic historical groups. It has a great tradition for accuracy of detail, and visitors would be surprised to know that some of the costumes worn have cost thousands of francs to make.

Among the historical sections, the Gallery of the French Revolution is not to be recommended to the impressionable. The death of Marat, in the very bath in which he was stabbed, is terrifying in its realism, with Charlotte Corday standing as far away as possible with her back to the wall as Sansculottes dash in to arrest her. No less realistic is the scene of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and their children in the prison of the Temple recoiling in horror from a grated window, through the bars of which can be perceived the head of the Princesse de Lamballe on the end of a pike. Madame Roland, in white dress, standing before her judges, is seen from a side door of the court, a clever arrangement. The Musee Grevin claims to have the finest set piece of any waxworks in the world. This is “An Evening at Malmaison,” with no fewer than 18 figures. The group is ranged round three sides of a drawing room giving out on to a garden. It is behind glass, which goes from floor to ceiling, so that spectators have an impression almost of walking among the famous guests. Here Bonaparte, fresh returned with laurels from his Italian campaign. is giving a soiree for his friends, who stand in groups or sit around tables listening to La Grassini, an Italian singer. Bonaparte. Josephine. the brothers of Bonaparte, his sister Pauline, his mother, some of his famous generals, Duroc. Berthier, Ney. Junot, his minister Talleyrand and many others form the group, the portraits excellent, the costumes magnificent and accurate in every detail. Another series of tableaux shows many of the chief incidents of French history, among them the meeting of Francis I and Henry VIII on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Mozart as a child, playing before Louis XV and the Marquise de Pompadour, sits at a real spinnet of the period. A large staff of artists and dressers is employed, and an historical expeit is kept busy replying to criticisms, furnishing proof that chaplets did exist in the days of Joan of Arc, that Francis I was slightly taller than Henry VIII, etc. In one instance historical accuracy had to be sacrificed to popular fancy, for far too many visitors complained that Joan of Arc’s hair was not dressed a la Jeanne d'Arc, a fashion made popular by artists but without historical foundation.