Louis Wain and his Cats

Cats evolved sometime in 7000 BC in the Fertile Crescent. But unlike dogs, they never really caught the imagination of the earliest humans. The transition of the cat from a scavenger to a cultural object began sometime in the late part of the 19^th century and a lot of it was due to the art of one man – Lous Wain. I stumbled upon Wain through Kathryn Hughes’ ‘Catland‘, which chronicles not just Wain’s life but also the cultural transformation of the cat from an object of derision to becoming the central cultural icon of modern life. As this Guardian reviewer puts it: ‘The small part of the internet that isn’t pornography, it’s sometimes observed, is mostly cat pictures’.

Louis Wain was an artist who made his mark by painting cat pictures. His cats were often dressed as humans and were anthropomorphized in various situations. Towards the end of his life, his schizophrenia got the better of him and he ended up in a mental institution.

Do spend some time browsing Wain’s cat pics in the internet to get a sense of his fame. Here is Hughes analyzing the popularity of the cat amongst bachelors:

‘the man who would take an interest in the cat movement was looked upon as effeminate’. Dogs were for men, cats for women and you crossed that line at your peril. All the same, you couldn’t help noticing that cats were often to be found in bachelor households, the kind of urban set-ups where one or two unmarried men lived at a discreet slant from conventional domesticity. These were the kind of men who were known amongst friends and family to be ‘very intellectual’, or ‘artistic’ or even ‘queer’. Into these fastidious and slightly mysterious households a cat fitted perfectly. For one thing, it could be relied upon to be discrete, making itself scarce whenever company was expected. This, certainly, is what Foss did, only appearing for Lear’s most frequent visitors as an occasional honour. Yet the moment the guests with their quizzing glances had left the bachelor’s apartment, a cat might emerge from his hiding place and lounge luxuriantly on the sofa like a woman or a boy hired for the night, writhing with ecstasy under his master’s caressing hand. Then again, like many a middle-aged bachelor about town, the cat kept night hours and where he went after dark was his business alone. He might occasionally be spotted pausing in front of this or that street spectacle – a pub fight, a lovers’ tiff, an ecstatic kiss – drinking in the scene like one of Baudelaire’s flâneurs, before slipping off unnoticed down a side alley. Resolutely resourceful, the cat could live independently if it had to, relying on street sustenance – a mouse, an old fish head – just like a bachelor popping into his club for a light supper on the way home to his kitchenless chambers. The cat’s civic identity was blurred too since, unlike a dog, it required no licence, at least not in Britain. The cat always managed to slip free of any attempt to define it.

Had it not been for Wain, Tom & Jerry, Garfield, Felix the Cat and Hello Kitty would probably not have been tested and launched on us.

Also check out this earlier post, on the topic of cats: Feline Encounters of 2023