Louis Wain

Louis Wain (* August 5, 1860 in Clerkenwell, London; † 4 July 1939) was a British artist, best known for his anthropomorphic cats.

Life

Louis Wain was a native of France, mother and five younger sisters. His youngest sister came later in psychiatry. His father was a textile merchant and stickers. Wain studied from 1877 to 1880 at the "West London School of Art" and was there until 1882 for a short time teachers. From the age of 20, he provided his mother and siblings because his father died in 1880. He finished his teaching job to become a freelance artist. At age 23, he married the governess of his sisters, Emily Richardson, who was ten years older, which at that time was considered scandalous. A few years later his wife died of cancer. In 1886 he painted the first humanized cats. Between 1880 he was in the United Kingdom and the United States through his comics very popular until the outbreak of the First World War.

From 1907 to 1910 he journeyed to New York City and there painted comics of cats. When he returned, his mother died. Around this time, a schizophrenia began to develop with him, which was reflected also in his painting style. He was moody, behaved aggressively and partially developed a distrust of his sisters. Then he was in 1924 admitted to the arms station in " Springfield Mental Hospital". Later, when his fate became public, better accommodation was organized for him. As a result of his illness to changing his cats images so that they finally showed almost exclusively from wild ornamentation umwucherte eyes. He died in 1939.