Catland

by Louis Wain (illustrator), Rodney Dale (editor)

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Good, 1st Edition. 4to. 32 pp. Profuse coloured illustrations. Very good clean tight sound square, no bookplate, inscriptions or marks of any kind. Light browning limited to endpapers only. In bright gilt lettered and illustrated red cloth, together with original unclipped pictorial dustwrapper creased to rear at foot, gently sunned to spine and with short chip half cm to tail of spine. Anthropomorphised cats were Louis Wain's chief subject; he was prolific and very popular, from his first paintings, which appeared in London Illustrated News, to the later children's books, papers, journals, magazines and postcards. It is a matter of fierce debate whether Wain's later schizophrenia may have been precipitated by toxoplasma gondii, a parasite which is excreted by cats in their faeces. When his sisters could not longer cope, Wain was admitted to the pauper ward of, where he made a great number of abstract cat paintings. It has been variously posited that schizophrenia caused the abstraction, others maintain that the date order of the paintings is unknown and the theory cannot be substantiated. Wain was 'discovered' in poverty and rescued by the personal intervention of the Prime Minister and authors such as H.G. Wells, and moved to Bethlehem Hospital, which had a garden with a colony of cats.

Genres: Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Louis Wain was an English artist best known for his drawings, which consistently featured anthropomorphised large-eyed cats and kittens.

Reviews

[Cail Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful starting place to learn about Wain and his work. Only 13 images to go with the biography, but a solid selection over his artistic career.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Wain's art for many years before I knew much about him. Poor guy. He declined into mental illness. I wish this book had been longer to allow for a LOT more pictures, but I like it nonetheless.