Louis William Wain was born on 5 August 1860.  His father was a traveller for a textile firm:  his mother, of French emigré descent, designed church embroideries and carpets.  He studied at the West London School of Art, and began his career as an art journalist, drawing many different subjects. 

It was for his pictures of cats that he eventually became famous.  From the 1880s until the outbreak of the First World War, the 'Louis Wain cat' was hugely popular.  Appearing in vast quantities in prints, books, magazines, post-cards and annuals, Wain's humanised cats are to be found engaging in every form of human activity - from playing cricket, digging up roads, and riding bicycles, to parading the latest fashions at Ascot and making pompous after-dinner speeches at the club. 

Despite his fame Wain never made much money, being highly impractical in business matters, and from the beginning of the War onwards he began to suffer real poverty.  Always known as being somewhat eccentric, he began to show signs of outright mental disorder. He changed from a mild and gentle man into one who was suspicious, abusive, and occasionally even violent towards his sisters with whom he lived.

In June 1924, at the age of 63, he was certified insane and committed to Springfield Hospital (the former Surrey County Asylum) at Tooting.  'Discovered' here the following year, he was transferred to Bethlem Royal Hospital after a campaign led by admirers of his work, including the Prime Minister Ramsey Macdonald. 

During the move of Bethlem Royal Hospital to its present location in 1930 patients were either sent home or temporarily transferred to allow the move to take place. Louis Wain was transferred to Napsbury Hospital, near St Albans.   As he settled in well and appeared happy there, he remained there. He continued drawing until near the end of his life. Exhibitions of his work were held in London in 1931 and 1937, as well as a memorial exhibition shortly after his death.  He died at Napsbury on 4 July 1939.

Bethlem Art and History Collections Trust owns around forty works by Louis Wain. Click here to see the work of Louis Wain