This group in coloured wax represents the death of Voltaire. He is shown lying in a bed with a dark green curtained canopy; the covers are turned back showing his dark robe open at the chest. His right hands rest on the body while the left hands down over the side of the bed. The scene also originally included an elderly woman in a blue and red dress and a young woman in white, wringing her hands however these have been detacted and damaged. The wooden casing has also been sawn down.

The scene was made by Philippe Curtius (1737-1794) a Swiss wax modeller whose first exhibition of life sized wax figures opened in Paris in 1770. He also opened sites in the Palais Royal and the Boulevard du Temple and added a section called the 'Caverne de Grands Voleurs', the forerunner of the 'Chamber of Horrors' in 1783.

Other wax statuettes by Curtius are held, for instance, at the Rijskmuseum, Amsterdam (The Dying Socrates) and The Metropololitan Museum, New York (Sleeping Beauty).