Louis Wain’s Cats by Chris Beetles

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

While the name “Louis Wain” may not be commonly recognized, his art almost certainly will be.  Wain specialized in painting anthropomorphic cats; indeed, he pioneered the look and certainly popularized the cat as a pet rather than just vermin controller. Born in 1860, he was the eldest of six children, and the only boy.  When his father died in 1880, Wain became the sole support of his mother and five sisters. He became a freelance artist, doing mainly country scenes and especially animals.

His life changed dramatically when he met Emily Richardson, who was his sisters’ governess.  They fell in love and married. Not only was Emily ten years older than Louis, but they were from different social classes so the marriage was considered scandalous.  Unfortunately, Emily developed breast cancer not long after the marriage.  She found diversion and comfort in their pet cat, Peter, whom Wain took to drawing for her amusement.  Emily died in 1886, but because of her encouragement, Wain sought successfully to have his drawings published.  They were immediately popular.  Wain was extremely prolific, but since he failed to copyright his works, he failed to get much of the financial rewards he deserved. 

Later in life, his erratic behavior caused him to be institutionalized in appalling conditions.  His admirers, who included H.G. Wells, came to his aid, getting him transferred to better hospitals where he continued to create art until his death in 1939. Some of the later pieces influenced the psychedelic art of the 1960s.

Wain was one of those individuals who seemed to throw himself into whatever took his fancy at the time and was (mostly) astonishingly good at what he attempted.  His failings were mostly financial—he had no talent for investing.  He championed animal rights and helped create protection societies. 

While Wain’s work has remained popular, much of it has been out of print except in collections.  A recent film, “The Electric Life of Louis Wain,” which starred Benedict Cumberbatch as the artist and Claire Foy as his wife, brought renewed interest to his art and an updated version of this particular collection, for which Cumberbatch supplied the introduction.

Beetles’ book includes a great deal of biographical information about Wain as well as reproducing many of his better known works. His earlier art was very realistic, but his genius was in making the cats reflect humans and human society.  After his illness began, his art became more abstract and included vivid colors and backgrounds.  The book also covers his amazing ceramic abstract cats created in 1914. The book is worth a look for the pictures alone, which are beautifully rendered. 

This is both a browser’s delight and a treasure trove of information about the artist himself.  I found it to be most enjoyable, both as a visual treat and as a source of information about the man behind the art I had long admired. I especially enjoyed seeing some of the work I was less familiar with, and gained a whole new appreciation for Wain and his work.