Artist Louis Wayne

Louis wain Illustrator, and artist

Louis Wain illustrator and artist born in England, August 1860 and past July 1939 was known for his drawings of Anthropomorphized cats and was also recognized as the precursor of psychedelic art

Louis went to art school and after became an art teacher at the West London school of art, in 1881 his first illustration for illustrated sporting and dramatic news, in 1882 he was able to give up is teaching job at the West London school of art and become a full-time illustrator.

Louis Wains life was both interesting and tragic.

He could draw from memory, he drew with both hands at the same time, he was ambidextrous.

In the beginning and through most of his life he had to take care of his family, which included his mother and five sisters. He met his wife Emily Richardson.when she was governess to his sisters.

The couple were married, and moved to Hampstead, were there they met Peter. Peter was a little black and white tabby, after Emily and Louis were married, within the first year she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, but the same day of her diagnosis Emily and Louis went outside, It was raining and they heard a sound and there they found Peter.Peter gave Emily very much comfort, .to me I felt through sadness and despair there can be found joy . …this started Louis’s fascination and love of cats. Peter was his first drawing and at the time in England cats where considered vermin but Louis made them whimsical, charming….

As a young widower Wain rented rooms-in Nee Cavendish Street, in the city of Westminster, they’re he moved around in bohemian circles, that included artists and journalists, such as Herbert Railton, Caron Woodville, Linley sambourne to name a few on musical evenings, he would improvise on the piano, he worked up his reputation by taking on commissions, he also illustrated architecture and landscape drawings for many journals.

Although he made an enormous amount of illustrations Louis went into debt because he never put a copyright on any of his illustrations, which was very sad because with Emily’s death, which was only three years of marriage, his younger sister Marie was discovered to have a mental illness and all of Louis’s money went into taking care of her care and the care of his sisters, being the only man in the family. With the stress of his grief of his wife, Emily’s passing, and his little sister, Marie’s diagnosis of leprosy and schizophrenia, put him over the edge as he started on a downward spiral of his own mental health.

Louis Wain’s paintings, illustrations were featured on the cover of children’s books, including his annual which ran from 1901 to 1921, his work has appeared on postcards and advertisements, but he sold his work cheaply because he needed the money to take care of his mother and sisters, He also believed the more intensely he suffered, the more beautiful his work became. He also talked about electricity. He felt an electrical charge which he interjected into some of his illustrations.

As his mental health declined, you could see it in his illustrations of his whimsical cats…

With the stress of his life and the tragedies, which caused him anxiety and the loss of his sister Caroline his mental health started to decline. He finally had a mental break down and was declared insane. in 1924 Wayne’s sisters had him certified insane and admitted him to a Pauper ward at a mental hospital he kept producing his artwork. Dan Rider a bookseller who he had meet on a train earlier in his career organized an exhibition of his work , the author HG Wells started a fund for him which abled him to move to a better hospital and prime Minister Ramsey McDonald at the time set up a fund for his sisters care because of Wayne’s contributions to the art world.

Wain who suffered anxiety as a child, having to take care of, his family, suffered through grief and many tragedies in his life, which is seen through a lot of his artwork, was diagnosed towards the end of his life with schizophrenia. In 1938 he suffered a stroke and a year later he passed away, but his work lives on and was considered as I said above the precursor to psychedelic art, and became very popular again in the 60s