Although Wain wasn’t formally diagnosed with a condition, psychologists and art scholars have since concluded that he may have been schizophrenic (Milton, 2011), explaining the dramatic changes in style. This work above, created when Wain was incarcerated at the famous Bethlem Hospital, in London, is intricately detailed, almost obsessive, still including a cat in the scene. He spent the remainder of his days locked away, before his death at Napsbury hospital in 1939. In 1924, he was detained at Springfield Mental Hospital, in London. Wain, already with a tendency to become violent, became increasingly suspicious, and spoke in a rambling and incoherent manner. Wartime paper shortages and a decline in demand, twinned with poor investment choices left him destitute, compounded during the 1920’s, when demand for his work all but dried up.
Up until World War one, work was constant for Wain which bought in a steady income. Perhaps one can read in the early work, connections with hidden mental illnesses, that would become more evident as his life progressed. Despite Wain’s growing success, this had a substantial effect on his life, causing him to become inward-looking, suspicious and crippled with severe depression and anxiety.
For Wain though, inner demons would eat away at him, for just three years after his marriage to Emily, she died of breast cancer. They proved to be extremely popular at the time. Wain’s earlier work, was humorous and poked fun at late-Victorian and Edwardian fashion. ‘Hallo There! We won’t go home until morning’.) From the book, ‘ Madame Tabby’s Establishment’). Then All The Cats Joined And Sung The Chorus To Madame’s Satisfaction. ‘ Madame Tabby’s Establishment’, Front Cover). Two years later, Wain tasted success for the first time, landing a job with the publisher Macmillan, illustrating for the popular children’s book called Madame Tabby’s Establishment. It wasn’t until the age of twenty-four, in 1884, that Wain managed to get a drawing of a cat published in The Illustrated London News. He managed to get his work published in Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, a popular magazine at the time. At the age of twenty-three, Wain married his Sister’s Governess, Emily Richardson, who was ten years his senior. Early on in his career he specialised in drawing animals, rather than focusing on cats, as he didn’t feel that he would be taken seriously. Like me, Wain’s artistic style has gone through a number of transitions through his life, and like me, may have been due to mental illness. I suppose at this point, you may be wandering what all of this has to do with me and my practice. Wain, was and still is one of the most popular commercial illustrators in English history. His work appeared in magazines, children’s books, greetings cards, journals and in between 19, the Louis Wain Annual. During the course of my recent research I stumbled across Louis Wain (1860 – 1939), who was an English illustrator, most famous for his paintings of anthropomorphous caricatures of cats, wearing contemporary clothing, enjoying human pursuits, like fishing, playing instruments, dining, smoking and attending the opera.
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