Artist Louis Wain (1860 London - 1939 Hertfordshire) is best known for his anthropomorphic large-eyed cats and kittens. The
first of six children, and born with a cleft lip, he was kept out of school
until he was ten years old. After a difficult period of delinquency, he enrolled
at the West London School of Art, eventually joining the faculty for a short
period before returning home to support his mother and sisters. He began
working as a freelance artist, painting commissioned portraits for country
estates and livestock shows.
At 23, he married his sister's governess,
Emily Richardson, (scandalously 10 years his senior) and moved with her to north
London. She succumbed to cancer only three years later, but during those years
Wain engaged Emily's cat to amuse her by dressing him up in clothing and
spectacles, and teaching him tricks. His sketches of this cat became the start
of his later published works, known as "Louis Wain Cats." Over the next thirty
years, he remained a prolific artist, illustrating about a hundred children's
books and providing drawing for magazines and postcards. A victim of
schizophrenia, he spent the final 15 years of his life in a comfortable asylum -
drawing cats.
His adorable cat postcards sell in the $100s each.
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