Laura Gascoigne

How crazy was Louis Wain?

The 1960s generation claimed the artist as a proto-freak for his psychedelic cats that looked like they were bombed out of their tiny minds

‘Three White Cats and Tub’ (left) and ‘Tabby Toboggan Club’ (right) and by Louis Wain 
issue 18 December 2021

Before Tom Kitten, before Felix the Cat, before Thomas ‘Tom’ Cat, Sylvester James Pussycat Sr, Top Cat and Fat Freddy’s Cat, there were the cats of Louis Wain.

The Wain cat came in a variety of breeds and colours: black and white, tabby, marmalade, white and blue (sky blue rather than Persian).

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