Louis Wain: The Schizophrenic Artist Obsessed With Cats

Louis Wain (1860 – 1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphised cats. In his later life, Wain developed schizophrenia, which psychiatrists speculated at the time was brought on by toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be contracted from cats. He was first committed to a mental hospital in 1924. He was transferred to the Napsbury Hospital in St Albans in 1930 and this is when his artistic style took on a dramatic transformation. He became increasingly deluded but carried on painting cats. Psychiatrists point to the abstract patterns in his paintings as evidence of his schizophrenia.

It has long been suggested that there is a link between mental disorders and creativity (which involves divergent thinking – thinking in a free-flow, spontaneous, many-branching manner). For example, there is evidence that the common link between schizophrenics and creative people is having fewer dopamine receptors. This results in the brain filtering less information, which for creative people leads them to come up with new ideas and solutions, while in schizophrenics in can result in abnormal thought patterns. The connection between mental illness and creativity has also been confirmed by large-scale population studies, showing that people in the creative profession are more likely to be treated for a mental illness. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry also found a strong association between the artistic profession and schizophrenia.

What is interesting about Wain’s more abstract work is that it features very psychedelic, colourful, kaleidoscopic, intricate and sometimes fractal patterns. This suggests that there may be a similar brain process underlying the psychedelic experience as found in schizophrenia or creative thinking. In fact, many academics have studied the potential of psychedelic drugs to enhance creativity. Below are some examples of Wain’s art.

Note: There is some dispute as to whether Wain’s more abstract drawings were signs of him becoming increasingly deluded. As a case in point, Wain continued to paint in his conventional style (with human-like cats) years after his abstract work. Wain did not date his more abstract drawings, so it is difficult to say whether they are a sign of his condition becoming worse. The drawings below are not in any chronological order. An article in Mind Hacks explains how this ‘increasing abstraction over time’ could be a myth.

18 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    August 18, 2013 / 2:53 pm

    Must've been seeing something beautiful.

    • Anonymous
      August 18, 2013 / 11:44 pm

      Or terrifying.

    • Anonymous
      June 9, 2017 / 4:56 am

      look alike Batik art

  2. Anonymous
    August 18, 2013 / 4:58 pm

    sexy space demons

  3. Anonymous
    August 18, 2013 / 6:27 pm

    anyone who ever grasped the inner shadow will instantly recognise the terrors behind those paintings.
    for others, they might appear quite beautiful

    • Anonymous
      December 22, 2013 / 3:25 am

      i dont understand your statement

  4. garrett
    August 18, 2013 / 10:09 pm

    the ones toward the bottom are pretty amazing. The ones at the beginning aren't really anything you would notice.

  5. Anonymous
    August 19, 2013 / 12:33 am

    L.S.D. changes a man…

  6. Anonymous
    August 20, 2013 / 12:00 am

    ^That's a seriously lame, uneducated comment. I implore you to get your facts straight. Granted Hofmann first synthesized LSD on November 16, 1938, but the psychedelic effects weren't noted until "Bicycle Day" on April 19, 1943. This artist died in 1939 and most certainly could NOT have consumed LSD.

    • Rabbit
      January 3, 2014 / 11:00 am

      Relax, you don't need to put people down for comments that they make. Actually, his psychedelic pictures are very similar to intense LSD trips. I think this person was just making a statement about that… It's true, LSD does change a man. You experience life completely differently. I think all of His pictures are incredible. A very interesting man.

    • Will Brett
      December 9, 2022 / 2:45 pm

      Daddy chill

  7. Helen Leeming
    December 1, 2013 / 7:27 pm

    I own a few pieces of his earlier work and would like to know more about them if anyone has any further knowledge?

  8. wenceslao ciuro
    June 25, 2018 / 7:56 pm

    Genius who paid with his own sanity, good, left us amazing images.

  9. MrJones
    April 25, 2021 / 4:21 am

    DMT makes you visually perceive in a similar way

  10. Brett Willis
    April 15, 2022 / 6:18 am

    My brother overdosed on LSD, took like a dozen hits back in the late 80’s. For years he acted like a schizophrenic person and still pretty crazy to this day. Also I’ve noticed that taking acid or DMT and being schizophrenic are similar in that they both produce fractal images to some degree.

  11. John Baker
    December 9, 2022 / 2:44 pm

    I gonna crush this guys painting up and snort them like crack

    • Sam Woolfe
      Author
      December 14, 2022 / 12:25 pm

      Let me know how the experiment goes (although you smoke crack, you don’t snort it).

  12. anonymous
    February 20, 2023 / 1:05 am

    ik this is an old article but there’s no evidence suggesting that louis wain had schizophrenia

Leave a Reply