Hi I am a collector of Louis Wain art and I have one of the worlds largest collection of his work which I have on display at my website. Below is an article I have written about his life and art. I have visited his grave and I must say its pretty derelict. I hope the local London council will eventually add some TLC to his grave.
Louis Wain was born in London’s Clerkenwell district in 1860 and eventually became an artist, selling his sketches of dog shows to the Illustrated Sporting News.His father was a textile salesman and his mother designed carpets and church fabrics. A sickly child, he was educated at the Orchard Street Foundation, Hackney, and at St Joseph’s Academy, Kennington. He trained at the West London School of Art (1877-80), remaining there as an assistant teacher until 1882. From his father’s death in 1880, he had to support first his mother and his five younger sisters. He married his youngest sister's governess, Emily Richardson, which was considered quite scandalous at the time.
Louis William Wain studied at the West London School of Art, and began his career as an art journalist. However, it was for his pictures of cats that he eventually became famous. He supplemented his income by working as a freelance illustrator (initially influenced by Caldecott and May), and in 1882 he joined the staff of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. He began to make his name with humorous cat drawings, primarily in the Illustrated London News, the staff of which he joined in 1886. He was the first to work consistently within the convention of depicting clothed and standing animals.From the 1880s until the outbreak of the First World War, the ‘Louis Wain cat’ was hugely popular. Appearing in prints, books, magazines, post-cards and annuals, Wain’s cats are to be found engaging in every form of human activity - from playing cricket, digging up roads, and riding bicycles, to parading the latest fashions at Ascot and making pompous after-dinner speeches at the club.
To entertain her on her sickbed, Wain started drawing their cat, Peter. Emily encouraged him to send these drawings to newspapers and magazines, and soon the Louis Wain cat was a household name, not only in Britain but also in America, where his comics and drawings of cats appeared in several newspapers.
His wife died of cancer in 1887.
Louis Wain was elected as President of the National Cat Club and wrote the book 'In Animal Land with Louis Wain' in 1904. However, he was not a good businessman, and in 1907 he was sued for debt. In the same year he moved to the United States to make a new start, producing strip cartoons for the New York American (1907-10).
After the death of his sister Caroline in 1917, he suffered a mental decline, becoming a schizophrenic, as his work clearly revealed. ‘His cats became frenzied and jagged, sometimes disappearing into kaleidoscopic shapes’ (Spalding). Wain continued drawing cats for newspapers and children’s books until he fell victim to his schizophrenia in 1917 at the age of 57 ( His sisters always believed it started when he fell off an Omnibus and hit his head ). Jagged lines of bright color began emanating from his feline subjects. The outlines of the cats became severe and spiky, and their outlines persisted well throughout the sketches, as if they were throwing off energy.
Coupled with WWI and the public dwindling interest in cats, Wain soon fell into poverty and in June 1924, he was certified insane and committed to Springfield Hospital (the former Surrey County Asylum) at Tooting.
When, in 1925, he was found in the pauper’s ward of Middlesex County Mental Asylum, an appeal was launched on his behalf, and he was transferred to a comfortable room with his paints in the Bethlem Royal Hospital, Southwark. After a campaign by admirers of his work, including the Prime Minister Ramsey Macdonald,King George & H.G.Wells the appeal reached twice the target sum in a month - a sign of the public’s continuing affection - and despite poverty and mental illness he retained for many years the position of President of the National Cat Club. A foundation was set up for him which enabled Wain to spend the last years of his life in comfort in private asylums in Southwark and Napsbury, where he continued to paint and draw his cats. The Hospital was at that time at St George’s Fields, Southwark.
In 1930 Louis Wain was transferred to Napsbury Hospital , near St Albans . He continued drawing until near the end of his life, and exhibitions of his work were held in London in 1931 and 1937. He died at Napsbury on 4 July 1939. Louis wain is buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Harrow Road, London NW10 5NU (Next to Kensal Green Cemetary) in the same buriel plot as his family. Alas, the plot is very neglected.
Author: Paul Hussey November 2007.
I am a collector of Louis Wain 1860-1939 Funny Cats and Dogs on Fine ArtPrints. My aim is to spread the name and humour of a great Cat,Dog and Animal Artist. If you would like to see some of his work please visit my hobby website. My collection totals 150+ Pictures which are on display at my website:
**** www.geocities.com/fabprints2/LW.html *******
