The Art and Life of Louis Wain and His Cats

Do you like cats? Do you like art? Both? Great! Then come and join us as we discover the life and work of Louis Wain. Louis Wain is considered one of the most popular commercial illustrators in the history of England. Born in 1860, his anthropomorphic portrayals of cats captured the imagination of the Edwardian era, and his work helped to elevate the profile and popularity of our feline friends to unprecedented heights. Before Wain, cats in England were often thought of with contempt, almost as vermin. It was his work humanized them and helped to show them as something to be liked, admired and even loved. “He made the cat his own” H.G. Wells once remarked. “He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world.” In this class, we will explore his artwork through the story of his beloved wife Emily, who tragically died of cancer very young, to becoming an international cat celebrity who was elected president of the National Cat Club of England, to living the last 15 years of his life in poverty in an asylum. We will explore the questions of whether his work should be viewed as an expression of his illness, as Van Gogh's work often is, or as an expression of the creative artist.