Louis Wain Illustrated Cats (Boxed Cards)

Set of 8 different cat blank notecards in a decorative, die-cut box.~~Louis Wain (1860-1939) is the most famous, and versatile, of cat artists. He was an Englishman, and though he painted and drew many different animals, it is the cat that lay at the center of his inspiration.~~Wain's cat art encompasses several styles. He created many wonderfully realistic cats, but Wain also wrote and illustrated children's books featuring cats walking on two legs, wearing clothes and otherwise acting human. These are winningly humorous. It is clear from his work that he loved and understood cats, thus it will come as no surprise that he was a lifelong supporter of animal charities. ~~His life was complicated and often sad, marked by mental illness and financial struggles. After a brief period of committal in a grim institution, the intervention of friends and admirers - including King George V and Ramsey Macdonald, then England's prime minister - secured him a place in a pleasant rural hospital, the gardens of which fortuitously hosted a colony of cats. Wain spent his last fifteen years here, and continued to portray his favorite subject. His late work, preternaturally psychedelic and wildly colorful, is the subject of much interest and dispute. ~~The eight images contained in this box represent Wain and his cats in a variety of moods and modes.