Kanga And Wombats Adventures

20.11.19

This post has taken me ages to write. I wanted to get all my facts straight and it has meant a lot of research. I hope I’ve done it justice.

Louis Wain was my Grandad’s cousin.

After sleuthing him for the past few days, more questions than answers seem to have arisen! I think it’s probably more likely he was a second cousin.

As kids we were always told about ‘Cousin Louis’, and were shown books of his cat drawings. As a family who loves cats, Louis was always something of a ‘hero’ in our minds.

Louis was known as the ‘The man who drew cats’. In Victorian England, he was a household name.

And he spent the last 15 years of his life in a mental asylum.

This is my story of finding out why.

Louis was the eldest in the family and had 5 sisters, two of whom were also artists. His father worked for a firm of drapers and his mother designed church embroideries and carpets for a hobby (which will perhaps later give some explanation to his work). He was born with a cleft palate, and on a doctor’s advice he was prevented from attending school until he was 10.

Louis studied art at the West London School of Art, then became a freelance art journalist, producing drawings on many different subjects for newspapers and journals.

When he was 20, his father died and he was left to care for his mother and sisters.

He started a relationship with his sister’s governess, Emily, marrying her when he was 23. She was 10 years older, and it was considered quite scandalous at the time. Tragically, she died 3 years later of breast cancer (although I wasn’t aware that was a recognised diagnosis back then).

During Emily’s illness, Louis tried to amuse her by drawing their pet cat Peter, in ‘humanistic’ poses. It was the start of his very prolific career drawing anthropomorphic cats (cats with human characteristics). He was highly successful, and produced thousands of drawings in books, newspapers, postcards, even a regular Christmas Annual.

Louis was a hopeless business man, and despite his popularity, he suffered financial difficulties. He made bad investments and sold his pictures without retaining rights to their reproduction.

He remained financially responsible for his mother and sisters, none of whom married. Interestingly, the youngest was certified insane at the age of 30 and committed to an asylum.

In his 60’s, Louis’ behaviour started to deteriorate, and he became erratic, threatening and violent. When the sisters couldn’t tolerate it any longer and with no money, they had him committed to a pauper’s asylum. A diagnosis of schizophrenia was made, although aspbergers and even toxoplazmosis have also been suggested more recently.

Discovered in the asylum by a random member of the public, his plight came to national attention. Figures such as HG Wells and the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin took up the cause and money was raised to transfer him to a better facility. Firstly in Bethlem Private Hospital then Napsbury, he remained in much more pleasant surroundings, still drawing, until he died, aged 78.

Series of his paintings have often been used in psychology textbooks to explain the deterioration of the mind as psychosis takes over.

As none of the paintings were dated, they were arranged in order to support these theories. Defenders of Louis say that they could also reflect his mother’s paisley tapestry designs and indeed some may even have been unfinished works.

So how did I find all this out?

We went out to Bethlem Hospital which now houses a special museum. Bethlem Museum of the Mind. What an interesting place!

Not only does it have about 35 of Louis’ originals, he is quite their celebrity patient. The shop is full of his cat drawings in books, postcards, mugs, keyrings…anything you can put an image on really!

But I digress!

The museum was exactly as its name suggests, full of interesting exhibits to do with the history and treatment of mental health.

You could see examples of restraint devices, electric shock machines, chemical remedies and clothing such as straight jackets and a dress that looked reasonable at first glance, but was actually embedded with metal!

Thankfully, the museum also looked at how mental health problems are dealt with today, and a lot of the time, it is getting patients to express their feelings and emotions through art!

On learning why we were visiting, the attendant asked Colin, the museum archivist to come out and talk to us. He told us so much about Louis, a lot of which is the basis of this blog post. He was very much of the opinion Louis was not schizophrenic but perhaps bipolar, as some of his later work, produced at Napsbury, is certainly quite ‘normal’. We both agreed that when you look back on Louis’ life experiences and responsibilities, it was enough to send anyone ‘off the rails’!

Actually Colin himself had a few ‘interesting’ characteristics!

I had read that Louis was buried with his father and asked Colin why not with his wife? Colin had no idea, so l was spurred on to try and find out.

My journey took me over to the other side of London to Kensal Green Cemetery, another massive cemetery of the same era as Highgate, but much uglier!

Google had given me the grave number, and the cemetery office were very helpful. I mentioned to the office guy I was surprised Louis was buried with his father and not his wife, to which he replied, “Oh there are 6 of them down there”!

Oh my goodness! In my head I was thinking, yes! He is with Emily after all!

But no! The cemetery records, which the man kindly printed off for me, didn’t add up.

For starters, the father’s name was given as William, and I’d always thought it was Richard! To add to the mystery, the gravestone named him as Matthew! At least the dates on the headstone matched with the cemetery records.

Louis was there, along with 4 females, all with the surname Wain. From the dates of their death and ages given when they died, I can only conclude that Caroline, Claire, Felecie and Josephine were his sisters.

More questions! Where was Emily, Louis ‘ mother and the 5th sister buried? Emily and his mother predeceased him, so why weren’t they in the family plot but Louis was?

I guess the final puzzle was the grave itself. Not what I expected at all. It was very unassuming, derelict, and difficult to read.

The inscription simply said:

‘Pray for the soul of Matthew William Wain who after long and patient suffering died on October 27th 1880.’

That was it!

As the man in the office said, “Twenty years ago I used to get many inquiries and visitors asking about the cat man. But not now. His popularity has certainly diminished.”

I’d like to think there were a few cat lovers in the world who would disagree.