MichelleWruck.com - Louis Wain

Louis Wain was a talented illustrator who made a living drawing for a newspaper before cameras were common. He was born in 1860 and died in 1939 and spent most of his life in England. He covered farm and agriculture stories throughout England and drew a lot of animals. Though, it seems that he had a lot more going on inside than he let on.

Wain became famous for his cat drawings, which cheered people during WWII, though they were originally made to cheer his dying wife. In 1883, Wain married Emily Richardson, which was a scandal because she was beneath his class, and although they were quite happy, she died a few years after their marriage. Shortly before her death, the two of them found a cat in the woods and Emily loved him to pieces, so they adopted him as a pet. At the time, cats were treated as pests, not pets.

Louis and Emily name their cat Peter and Wain began to draw pictures of Peter to cheer Emily during her fight with cancer. He made quite an extensive collection and she eventually encouraged him to share them with his editor. The images became very popular, though Wain failed to copywright any of them and didn't make any money.

After Emily died, Wain became sort of obsessed with cats. He inspired and joined "cat societies," people who were lobbying for the adoption of cats as pets. He also seems to have drawn nothing else after that point, just cats.

At some point, Wain began to draw cats in a very different way. Some said that he had gone insane and, indeed, he was admitted to a mental institution and did seem to struggle with depression for most of his life but there's no evidence that he lost touch with reality in any way. He continued to paint what we might consider "normal" cat pictures, while also exploring the psychedelic patterns like those below.

I don't particularly like his work, to be honest; I just find him fascinating. How did he see these psychedelic images? Where did they come from? Certainly nothing in Victorian England inspired them. If I could travel back in time and talk to anyone, he might be someone I'd choose to visit.