A century ago illustrator Louis Wain was a household name. Who was the man behind the cat drawings?
Louis Wain's drawings of cats made him a celebrated figure
He was rescued from his gruesome surroundings thanks to a campaign which even the prime minister of the day supported. In his new home at London's Bethlem Hospital, the artist decorated the building for Christmas in his own unique style.The Electrical Life of Louis WainGetty ImagesWain honed his skills at the West London School of Art, where he later became a teacher
At the age of 23, he married his sisters' governess, Emily Richardson, but soon after she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. "Very often the drawings were there to poke fun at the way people behaved. He also did a few political satirical cartoons, so Winston Churchill as a cat, but it was all very gentle," the museum director says.Wain's lovable cat images made him very popular
In June 1924, at the age of 63, he was certified insane and taken to the paupers' ward of the hospital in Tooting, south London. "Stigma [about mental disorders] certainly did exist 100 years ago," Mr Gale says. "I've been an archivist long enough to know that some people looking at their family history are discovering ancestors who were placed in psychiatric hospitals and it had been kept a family secret.
Wain left Bethlem Hospital in 1930 when the institution was moved to its present location in Beckenham, south-east London.
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