'Louis Wain invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world'. - H.G. Wells (1925)
Whilst the artist Louis Wain maintains one of the most recognisable bodies of work his posthumous fame pales in comparison to that which he achieved in his lifetime.
From an early career in journalism providing illustrations for his own stories and drawing anthropomorphised cats, primarily to entertain his ill wife, his career exploded when he was hired to illustrate the book, 'Madame Tabby's Establishment', and produced a feature, 'A Kitten's Christmas Party', for the Illustrated London News, which brought him instant and lasting fame - but due to his poor business sense never the wealth to accompany it - and between 1901 and 1921 he produced 16 annuals, over 1100 postcards and numerous illustrated books
Perhaps equally as famous as his art is that Wain sent his last 15 years in a series of psychiatric hospitals where he produced many of his most famous and outre works. It's unclear what exactly led to being institutionalised but he had previously suffered a serious head injury which may have contributed and diagnosis at the time was schitzophrenia after he had become violently delusional and believing, amongst other things, that spirits were infesting him with electricity. This diagnosis coming some time after his fame had waned and his fortunes had gone from bad to worse including the sinking, by U-Boat, of a boatload of his unfortunately named 'Lucky Futurist Mascots' whilst on their way to the US.
Beetles' book is a sumptuous and comprehensive exploration of Wain with his beautiful art given plenty of space to shine. Alongside the paintings we have articles by Wain himself on 'How I Draw My Cats', 'A Whole Pet World' and 'How Animals Study Their Appearance', an introduction by Benedict Cumberbatch - who played Wain in the biopic 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' - and numerous articles by Beetles, Rodney Dale, Ray Compton and Dave Wootton. The final result of all their work is entirely stunning and this is the book that Wain deserves and that every other artist should envy.
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