Welcome to the first blog of ”Artist, Weirdo or Genius?”. Our blog will consist of famous painters, but with an interesting twist.

Have you ever wondered how our lives are so different and unique in a way? We all enjoy different kinds of hobbies, like history, crocheting or even painting. It is not uncommon for us to express our emotions and mentality through our craft, and one of the most popular examples of this is Louis Wain.

Louis Wain was a British artist who was well known for his illustrations and paintings of cats which were made during the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras. Despite his colorful and gleeful depictions of the adorable cats, his life was filled with mental health struggles and tragedy.

Wain, born in Clerkenwell in 1860, was the second youngest of his siblings. His father was a textile manufacturer and his French mother was an aspiring artist. He developed an interest for art and showed potential at a young age. It is known that he started his studies at the West London School of art in when he was 20 years old.

At the start of his career he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines. His works from his early career mostly concluded of political cartoons. Surprisingly, this was not the start of his popularity.

The motivation behind Wain’s joyful cat paintings were his own pets, which he very much cherished. It is known that he would depict his own pets in humorous human-like scenes and situations (anthropomorphized). The cats depicted in Wain’s artworks would have exaggerated features, just like a cartoon. This specific quality made his paintings stand out from the rest.

Behind the fluffy curtains it is known that Louis Wain lived a tragic life. In 1887, his wife, Emily, suffered from and passed away due to breast cancer when they were raising 5 children together. Wain’s mental health began to deteriorate and it was seen through his works, his paintings of cats consisted of mandalas and detailed patterns throughout. Despite the struggles of his life, his paintings remained popular and was commissioned to create illustrations for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, an event celebrating Queen Victoria’s 60^th anniversary of her accession. His works were also exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

His mental health continued to decline, and due to this Wain had to be institutionalized, spending his last years in various mental hospitals. Of course, this didn’t stop him from painting abstract cats.

His degrading mental health was rumored to be schizophrenia, since his siblings had been declared insane.

Louis Wain passed away in 1939 in Napsbury Mental Health Hospital, St Albans, Hertfordshire, England.

Today, his illustrations remain loved by many art critics, and his legacy has been rediscovered in recent years.

As we, hobbyists Patrīcija and Dora, discussed about Louis Wain, we came to a realization, that we both can relate to him in a way. Of course, we don’t have a life filled with much hardship as Wain had, but what we shared in common is the same exact thing that many artists share; our emotions through art.

Source(s)

McGennis, A. (2014, June 13). Louis Wain: his life, his art and his mental illness. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/irish-journal-of-psychological-medicine/article/abs/louis-wain-his-life-his-art-and-his-mental-illness/E139F387B2D2D32189F52D521CB7CF60

Stokes, T. (2021, December 28). Louis Wain: The Artist Who Changed How We Think about Cats. BBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-59518847.