Sierra Valley Flour Sack Towel Cat in the Flowerbed by Louis William Wain

 

Louis William Wain [1860-1939] was an English artist, who was best known for his drawings featuring large-eyed cats. At age 23, he married his sister's governess, who died 3 years later from breast cancer. During this time, he began drawing their pet cat, who comforted his sick wife. Wain produced several hundred drawings a year for the next 30 years, and illustrated about one hundred children's books. His work appeared in several journals, papers, and magazines, and in 1907 he travelled to New York, where he drew comic strips for Hearst newspapers. In 1924, Wain was committed to the Springfield Mental Hospital for schizophrenia, which is believed to have been precipitated by toxoplasmosis from his cats. Many of Wain's works exhibit abstract patterns, which some say were the result of his schizophrenia.