Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Louis Wain's Cats

Artist Louis Wain (1860-1937) specialized in cat pictures as a genre; some of his illustrations featured cute cats doing typically human things; others verged on the abstract or even bizarre.

He suffered from schizophrenic disorder later in life; and was institutionalized. Also, he had lost his well-loved wife at an early age. In general, he had a sad life.

This one is cuddly cute:


This one is highly abstract; and verges on the bizarre.

I like his use of the patterned background; like it incorporates an Asian influence in his art:


This kitty can be seen either as whimsical or puzzled:


And what is more normal than a group of cats napping together:


There is a bit of question about Louis Wain's work.  Walter Maclay, a psychiatrist, wrote that his depiction of cats from the typically cute ones to the abstract mirrored is descent into schizophrenia. However, there is little evidence to document this consistent progression from the realistic to the bizarre followed any consistency. Louis Wain did not date his illustrations.  Alternatively, Louis Wain might have simply been experimenting with new approaches on the feline theme. After all, his abstract, geometric works have a consistency to them. Also, he was drawing at a time when boundaries in painting shifted from the concrete to the surrealistic or even bizarre.

7 comments:

  1. It would suck to be diagnosed as schizophrenic and get locked up because of your cat paintings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's not bizarre. It's just abstract. Cats themselves can be bizarre but not the paintings.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't help but think of van Gogh who, when looking at his self-portraits, one can see descend into "madness" when his manic phase would come out. the brush strokes became more intense so I can easily agree with that psychiatrist. The change in the art world was huge spearheaded by people like Picasso, Klimt, Miro but one can see how detailed the paintings are when he may have been in a certain manic phase. The attention to detail is mind blowing-love his work

    ReplyDelete
  4. Descent into schizophrenia... Let them prove it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. An interesting bit of information. Sad life of Louis Wain.

    ReplyDelete
  6. IMO his abstract cats were better art.

    ReplyDelete