Audax: the long-distance silhouettist

WHEN GOOGLING “Audax” all you’ll find is information about long-distance cycle racing. However, Audax was also a silhouettist with a career spanning over 40 years. This is why I refer to him as the long-distance silhouettist!

Text on card: Souvenir: Blankenberghe 1904, découpeee par AUDAX silhouettiste — *Early silhouette by Audax, cut in Flanders in 1904*

As an ex street artist I’m fascinated by artists like Audax. He (and I’m assuming ‘he’) was a European silhouettist who worked all over Europe, and later in Argentina, from the early 1900s until the late 1940s.

For somebody with such a long career it’s surprisingly hard to find out anything about him. Was “Audax” his real name, or a nom de ciseaux? Was he perhaps more than one artist? Perhaps a parent passed the skill down to a child, so that later silhouettes are in fact cut by Audax the younger.

There are questions I’d love to know the answers to. It’s hard to know where to start.

Audax Backing Cards

The little I know comes solely from his silhouettes and their various backing cards. Usually, these just include a signature or stamp. However, they occasionally carry details of the location or event where he was working.

Silhouette of a woman facing right — *Silhouette by Audax, cut at an Industrial Exhibition in Buenos Aires in 1947*

In 1901, the earliest dated Audax silhouette I’ve seen shows him working in Italy. By 1904 his cards place him in both Ostend and the exclusive Flanders seaside resort town of Blankenberge. After that there’s a really long gap.

Much later, in 1947, they place him in Buenos Aires, working at the at an Industrial Exhibition.

I’ve no idea what he was doing between those dates. Did he give up cutting silhouettes for another line of work, and only come back to silhouette cutting later in life? Or did he just make thousands of unsigned and unidentifiable silhouettes for the bulk of his career?

Sadly, unsigned silhouettes are typical of the period; many street artists developed the lazy habit of not labelling their work in any way, unless there was a reason to do so (for instance, while working at a major exhibition).

His career as an artist

Audax clearly worked as a street silhouettist at various European seaside resorts during the 1900s. His career, like those of so many other artists, was presumably interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1914. Did he travel to South America then, to escape the destruction, or perhaps migrated there afterwards? Or perhaps his trip to Argentina was a one-off event in 1947, especially to cut silhouettes during this special exhibition.

Silhouettes of an Edwardian couple with large hats and signed 'Audax' — *A pair of undated silhouettes cut by Audax in the early 1900s (to judge by the clothing)*
*and mounted onto blank, Italian postcards (so presumably cut in Italy)*

A collection of postcard silhouettes

Audax silhouettes are all freehand scissor-cuts mounted onto blank postcards. I think he worked fast as the quality of his work varies considerably. His earlier silhouettes seem smaller and neater than his later ones, and are sometimes cut in half length.

Caption: Recortada par el siluetista AUDAX — *Undated Audax silhouette with a Spanish label, which feels like his later work (1940s?)*

The later silhouettes often have quite thick eyelashes with blunt ends, and sometimes include collar lashes for the men. The eyelashes could be a way to attribute an unsigned Audax silhouette, but I’ve never seen one which could be a candidate.

This difference in style between his early and later work – and the lack of any examples dated from the 1920s or 30s – lends support to the idea that Audax may be two artists rather than one, separated by a generation or two.

I guess I can only answer this question by seeing a few more of their silhouettes. Do let me know if you have one, particularly if it has a date on it!