 Louis Wain at his drawing table in the 1890s Louis Wain (1860-1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphised large-eyed cats and kittens. In his later years he suffered from schizophrenia, which, according to some psychologists, can be seen in his works. Image File history File links Louis_Wain_at_his_drawing_table_1890. ...
Image File history File links Louis_Wain_at_his_drawing_table_1890. ...
1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ...
Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. ...
An anthropomorphic character; a cat ascribed human characteristics. ...
Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ...
A psychologist is a scientist or clinician who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior and cognition. ...
Life and work
 A naturalistic cat from early in Wain's career. Louis William Wain was born on August 5, 1860 in Clerkenwell in London. He was the first of six children, and the only male child. None of his five sisters ever married. At the age of thirty, his youngest sister was certified as insane, and admitted to an asylum. The remaining sisters lived with their mother for the duration of their lifetimes, as did Louis for the majority of his life. Image File history File links Wain_Cat_(realistic). ...
Image File history File links Wain_Cat_(realistic). ...
1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ...
Clerkenwell Green and St James church Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. ...
This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...
Wain was born with a cleft lip and the doctor gave his parents the orders that he should not be sent to school or taught until he was ten years old. As a youth, he was often truant from school, and spent much of his childhood wandering around London. Following this period, Louis studied at the West London School of Art and eventually became a teacher there for a short period. At the age of 20, Wain was left to support his mother and sisters after his father's death.
Wain soon quit his teaching position to become a freelance artist. He specialized in drawing animals and country scenes, and worked for several journals including the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, and the Illustrated London News. Through the 1880s, Wain's work included detailed illustrations of English country houses and estates, along with livestock he was commissioned to draw at agricultural shows. His work at this time includes a wide variety of animals, and he maintained his ability to draw creatures of all kinds throughout his lifetime. At one point, he hoped to make a living by drawing dog portraits.
At the age of 23, Wain married his sisters' governess, Emily Richardson, who was 10 years his senior (which was considered quite scandalous at the time), and moved with her to Hampstead in north London. Emily soon began to suffer from cancer, and died only three years after their marriage. It was during this period that Wain discovered the subject that would alter his career. During her illness, Emily was comforted by their pet cat Peter, and Wain taught him tricks such as wearing spectacles and pretending to read in order to amuse his wife. He began to draw extensive sketches of the large black and white cat. He later wrote of Peter, "To him properly belongs the foundation of my career, the developments of my initial efforts, and the establishing of my work." Peter can be recognized in many of Wain's early published works. For other places with the same name, see Hampstead (disambiguation). ...
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...
In 1886, Wain's first drawing of anthropomorphised cats was published in the Christmas issue of the Illustrated London News, titled 'A Kittens' Christmas Party.' The illustration depicted 150 cats, many of which resemble Peter, sending invitations, holding a ball, playing games, and making speeches over eleven panels. Still, the cats remain on all fours, unclothed, and without the variety of humanlike expression that would characterize Wain's work. As George Henri Thompson, he illustrated numerous books for children by Clifton Bingham published by Ernest Nister. Image File history File links Wain_cat_--_representative. ...
Image File history File links Wain_cat_--_representative. ...
Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ...
An anthropomorphic character; a cat ascribed human characteristics. ...
Louis Wain at his drawing table in the 1890s Louis Wain (1860-1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphised large-eyed cats and kittens. ...
In subsequent years, Wain's cats began to walk upright, smile broadly and use other exaggerated facial expressions, and wear sophisticated contemporary clothing. Wain's illustrations showed cats playing musical instruments, serving tea, playing cards, fishing, smoking, and enjoying a night at the opera. Such anthropomorphic portrayals of animals were very popular in Victorian England, and were often found in prints, on greeting cards and in satirical illustrations such as those of John Tenniel. Wain was a prolific artist over the next thirty years, sometimes producing as many as several hundred drawings a year. He illustrated about one hundred children's books, and his work appeared in papers, journals, and magazines, including the Louis Wain Annual, which ran from 1901 to 1915. His work was also regularly reproduced on picture postcards, and these are highly sought after with collectors today. In 1898 and 1911 he was chairman of the National Cat Club. redirect Victorian eramonkey ...
Greeting cards on display at retail. ...
1889 Self-portrait Sir John Tenniel (February 28, 1820 – February 25, 1914) was an English illustrator. ...
For the computer diagnostic tool, see POST card. ...
Wain's illustrations often parody human behavior, satirizing fads and fashions of the day. He wrote, "I take a sketch-book to a restaurant, or other public place, and draw the people in their different positions as cats, getting as near to their human characteristics as possible. This gives me doubly nature, and these studies I think [to be] my best humorous work."
Wain was involved with several animal charities, including the Governing Council of Our Dumb Friends League, the Society for the Protection of Cats, and the Anti-Vivisection Society. He was also active in the National Cat Club, acting as President and Chairman of the committee at times. He felt that he helped "to wipe out the contempt in which the cat has been held" in England. Etymologically, Vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living organism. ...
Despite his popularity, Wain suffered financial difficulty throughout his life. He remained responsible for supporting his mother and sisters, and had little business sense. Wain was modest and easily exploited, ill-equipped for bargaining in the world of publishing. He often sold his drawings outright, retaining no rights over their reproduction. He was easily misled, and occasionally found himself duped by the promise of a new invention or other money-making scheme. After a trip to New York in 1907 in which his work was widely admired, he returned with even less money than before due to imprudent investment.
Mental Illness
 This cat, like many painted during this period, is shown with abstract patterns behind it. Psychologists have cited this increased abstraction as symptomatic of Wain's schizophrenia, but others have argued that his "wallpaper cats" simply recall the patterns in his mother's fabrics. From this point, Wain's popularity began to decline. His mental instability also began around this time, and increased gradually over the years. He had always been considered quite charming but odd, and often had difficulty in distinguishing between fact and fantasy. Others frequently found him incomprehensible, and his mode of speaking tangential. His behavior and personality changed, and he began to suffer from delusions, with the onset of schizophrenia. Whereas he had been a mild-mannered and trusting man, he became hostile and suspicious, particularly towards his sisters. He claimed that the flickering of the cinema screen had robbed the electricity from their brains. He began wandering the streets at night, rearranging furniture within the house, and spent long periods locked in his room writing incoherently. Image File history File linksMetadata Wain_cat. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Wain_cat. ...
See fantasy for an account of the literary genre involving the development of common or popular fantasies. ...
Some speculate that the onset of Wain's schizophrenia was precipitated by toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be contracted from cats. The theory that toxoplasmosis can trigger schizophrenia is controversial but is the subject of significant research [1]. A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ...
When his sisters could no longer cope with his erratic and occasionally violent behavior, he was finally committed in 1924 to a pauper ward of Springfield Mental Hospital. A year later, he was discovered there, and his circumstances were widely publicized, leading to appeals from such figures as H.G. Wells and the personal intervention of the Prime Minister. Wain was transferred to the Bethlem Royal Hospital, and again in 1930 to Napsbury Hospital near St Albans in Hertfordshire, north of London. This hospital was relatively pleasant, with a garden and colony of cats, and he spent his final 15 years here in peace. While he became increasingly deluded, his erratic mood swings subsided, and he continued drawing for pleasure. His work from this period is marked by bright colors, flowers, and intricate and abstract patterns, though his primary subject remained the same. H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ...
The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is the worlds oldest psychiatric hospital. ...
, St Albans is the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35km) north of central London. ...
For the similarly named county in the West Midlands region, see Herefordshire. ...
A mood swing is an extreme or rapid change in mood. ...
 One of many pieces Wain produced at the Bethlem Royal Hospital. This piece is not broadly representative of his work there. A series of five of his paintings is commonly used as an example in psychology textbooks to, putatively, show the change in his style as his psychological condition deteriorated with time. However, it is not known if his works of art were actually created in the order they are usually presented, as he did not date them. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (486x640, 86 KB) A piece by Louis Wain, from his stay in the Betham asylum. ...
Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (486x640, 86 KB) A piece by Louis Wain, from his stay in the Betham asylum. ...
The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is the worlds oldest psychiatric hospital. ...
Psychological science redirects here. ...
H.G. Wells said of him, "He has made the cat his own. He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves."
His work is now highly collectable but care is needed as forgeries are common.
Bibliography Wikimedia Commons has media related to: All of Wain's books are in the public domain but none have been reprinted. Image File history File links Commons-logo. ...
- Fun and frolic Verses by Clifton Bingham, Ernest Nister.
- All Sorts of Comical Cats. Verses by Clifton Bingham London: Ernest Nister
- Fun at the Zoo with Verses By Clifton Bingham,
- Funny Favourites. Forty-five Pen-and-Ink Drawings by Louis Wain. London. Ernest Nister.
- Madame Tabby's Establishment (1886)
- Our Farm: The Trouble of Successes Thereof (1888)
- Dreams by French Firesides (1890)
- Peter, A Cat O'One Tail: His Life and Adventures (1892)
- Old Rabbit the Voodoo and Other Sorcerers (1893)
- The Dandy Lion (1900/01)
- Cats (1902)
- Pa Cats, Ma Cats and their kittens (1903)
- Louis Wain's Cat Painting Book (c.1910)
- Louis Wain's Cats and Dogs (c. 1910)
- The Louis Wain Nursery Book (c. 1910)
- Louis Wain's Cat Mascot (postcard coloring book, c.1910)
- Daddy Cat (1915)
- Little Red Riding Hood and Other Tales (1919)
- Somebody's Pussies (1925)
- The Boy who shares my name (1926)
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References See also: 1999 in literature, other events of 2000, 2001 in literature, list of years in literature. ...
Rodney Dale, from Haddenham in Cambridgeshire is an English writer and owner of the publishing company Fern House Publishing. ...
See also: 1967 in literature, other events of 1968, 1969 in literature, list of years in literature. ...
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