Louis Wain

Louis Wain

The cat artist Louis Wain’s first artistic successes were with the Illustrated London News in 1886. He had a troubled life and he was supported at a particularly difficult time by Collingwood’s father who provided a home in Westgate for Louis and his dependent sisters and mother. Collingwood’s diaries show that Wain went deer stalking with the Ingrams in 1896 and played golf and went to the theatre in London with Collingwood.  They went occasionally on sketching expeditions in and around Westgate. Perhaps he helped Collingwood with his drawing, we do not know. There are a few sketches by Wain in Collingwood's sketchbooks, one a typical Wain cat, two others, atypically, a simple landscape and a seascape. 

Louis Wain paintings made in Collingwood's sketchbooks