Louis Wain (1860 – 1939) was a well-known artist who was famous for his anthropomorphic cartoons and paintings of cats. Wain suffered from schizophrenia and possibly Asperger’s syndrome. As his disease progressed, his art style began to change. Focusing more and more on patterns, Wain’s drawings of cats became more abstract and detailed. Eventually, before his death, Louis Wain largely expressed his artistic talents in a patterned psychedelic manner. Many modern psychologists now use Wain’s art as an example of the effect of schizophrenia on the mind; showing the artist’s descent into madness.
