Shortly after the success of A Kitten’s Christmas Party, Emily died on January 2, 1887. The cats remain on all fours, unclothed, and without the variety of human-like expression which would characterize Wain's later work. It depicted 150 cats, many of which resembled Peter, engaged in activities such as sending invitations, holding a ball, playing games, and making speeches. The magazine editor, Sir William Ingram, commissioned Wain to create this work, which probably represented the peak of his fame. In 1886, Wain's first drawing of anthropomorphized cats, A Kitten's Christmas Party, was published in the Christmas issue of the Illustrated London News. Wain is known for his anthropomorphic cats. He later wrote of Peter, "To him, properly, belongs the foundation of my career, the developments of my initial efforts, and the establishing of my work." Peter can be recognized in many of Wain's early published works. Wain drew extensive sketches of Peter, which Emily encouraged him to have published. During her illness, Emily was comforted by their pet cat Peter, a stray black-and-white kitten whom they rescued when they heard him meowing in the rain one night. Prior to her death, Wain discovered the subject that would define his career. She soon began to suffer from breast cancer and died three years later. At one point, he hoped to make a living by drawing dog portraits.Īt 23, Wain married his sisters' governess, Emily Richardson, who was ten years his senior (which was considered scandalous at the time) and moved with her to Hampstead in north London. His work at this time included a wide variety of animals, and he maintained his ability to draw creatures of all kinds throughout his lifetime.
Through the 1880s, his work included detailed illustrations of English country houses and estates, and livestock he was commissioned to draw at agricultural shows. He specialized in drawing animals and country scenes, and worked for several journals including the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, where he stayed for four years and The Illustrated London News, where he began in 1886.
Wain soon quit his teaching position to become a freelance artist. He moved out from home and rented a furnished room when in 1881 he had his first drawing- Bullfinches on Laurel Bushes-published in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.Īn early Louis Wain caricature, featuring pugs rather than cats At the age of 20, he was left to support his mother and his five sisters after his father's death in 1880. He subsequently studied at the West London School of Art and was eventually a teacher there for a short period. As a youth, he was often truant from school and spent much of his childhood wandering around London. Wain was born with a cleft lip a doctor told his parents that he should not be sent to school or taught until he was ten. The remaining sisters lived with their mother for the duration of her life. She was admitted to an asylum in 1901, where she died in 1913. At 34 years old, his sister Marie was declared insane. He was the first of six children and the only male child. His father, William Matthew Wain (1825–1880), was a textile trader and embroiderer his mother, Julie Felicite Boiteux (1833–1910), was French. Wain was born on 5 August 1860 in Clerkenwell in London. Drawing by Louis Wain titled 'Caught! Keep your mouth shut and let me open your mind for you'
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