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Louis Wain - The film (2019)

Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy are Teaming Up on a Louis Wain Biopic

Here's everything we know so far about the star-studded film by Sarah Madaus 25th July, 2019

Benedict Cumberpatch (left) is to portray Louis Wain (right) in the new biopic - images courtesy of Getty

Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy are teaming up for Louis Wain, a new biopic about the British artist known for his eccentric pictures of cats.

Cumberbatch will play the lead role, Louis Wain, and Foy will play his wife, Emily Richardson. But this isn't their first time working together. They appeared previously on Wreckers, a U.K. television show. Cumberbatch is coming off a long run of films, including Avengers: Endgame and The Current War. For her part, Foy is well-known for her role as a young Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, as well as 2018's First Man.

Foy, Cumberpatch and the black & white kitten that started a legendary art style - image courtesy of IMDB

"I am thrilled by the prospect of playing the courageous, playful spirit that is Louis Wain and to be producing such a special film," Cumberbatch said in a statement to Deadline, "Together we plan to bring audiences a sincerely uplifting, playful, thought provoking tale of resilience, creativity and the enduring power of love." The film centres around the 19th- and 20th-century artist Louis Wain, who was known for painting cats.

When Wain was in his early twenties, he married his sister's teacher, Emily Richardson, who was 10 years his elder. They moved to northern London, where Richardson died from breast cancer three years into their marriage. Throughout her illness, she was consoled by the couples' rescue kitten, Peter. This is assumed to be the reason Wain's art largely consisted of kittens with exaggerated features.

The Modern 'Arry and 'Arriet Gouache by Louis Wain - Historical Picture Archive Getty Images

Some psychiatrists believe Wain's dramatic art shows signs of schizophrenia in his personal life. Will Sharpe, an up-and-comer, will direct. Sharpe was recently nominated for a BAFTA award for the film Black Pond. He also directed the British sitcom Flowers, an eccentric dramedy about a dysfunctional family. "I have admired Will's work for several years through Flowers and from the moment we first met, knew he was the perfect person to bring Louis' inspirational and odyssean story to life," said Cumberbatch. A slew of production companies are behind-the-scenes: StudioCanal, SunnyMarch (which is Cumberbatch's own company), Shoebox, Film4, and Amazon Studios. A release date hasn't been made public yet.

The film is set to begin shooting early next month. The French film production company StudioCanal will release Louis Wain in France, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, and Germany. Amazon Studios will release it in the U.S. Sarah Madaus Sarah Madaus is the digital editorial fellow at Town & Country.

Louis Wain Obituary - 1939

From the Daily Sketch

"Drew Cats because he Loved them - The man who never stopped sketching cats, Louis Wain, is dead. He was 78. Eighteen years ago he was thrown from a but and never recovered from the mental illness it caused. Miss Claire Wain, his sister, told the Daily Sketch last night: ' When he was a child we gave him a kitten, and since then he has never stopped sketching cats' It was not long before his work on the subject was in demand throughout the world.' Until a few hours before he died, Miss Wain said, her brother had been drawing cats. He loved them."

OBITUARY MR. LOUIS WAIN Mr. Louis William Wain, the cat artist, has died in Napsbury Hospital, St. Albans, at the age of seventy-eight. had been a mental patient for some years. Mr. Wain studied for a musical profession, but turned to art. He began to draw cats in 1883. He drew cats at cricket, cats at tea parties, cats angry, coy and sporting. Generations of children grew up with Louis Wain's cats to delight them in their picture-books and on greeting cards at birthdays and Christmas time. As those children grew up they retained their admiration for the artist who, with deft lines, gave cats the character of human beings. Mr. Wain was born in London. His father was W. M. Wain, of Leek, Staffordshire, and his mother Felicia Marie Booteux, of Paris. In 1881 Wain became an assistant master at the West London School of Art, and a year later joined the staff the " Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News," of which his drawings especially of animals, were featured. In 1907 he went to the United States, where, for three years, he delighted Americans with his sketches in the New York American and other publications. Soon afterwards his health broke down, and he was no longer seen in public, although his sisters occasionally arranged exhibitions of his pictures. He was president of the National Cat Club and a member of the Society for the Protection of Cats, the Council of Our Dumb Friends League and the Anti-Vivisection Society. Source : Birmingham Daily Post - Friday, 7th July 1939

Louis Wain remembered - 1960

From the archive, 5th August 1960: "The man who drew cats"

Louis Wain's anthropomorphic portrayals of cats were very popular in Victorian times. The artist's legacy is reassessed on the centenary of his birth He made the cat his own. He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. British cats that do not look and live like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.

This was H. G. Wells's tribute 35 years ago to Louis Wain, the centenary of whose birth falls today. Wells was supporting a broadcast appeal by Robert Loraine for Louis Wain, who had been taken as a pauper to a mental home. Ramsay MacDonald was another of the many famous men and women horrified to learn that one of the most popular artists in the world for more than 30 years had fallen on such evil times that he lacked even paper and pencil to use during his lucid moments.

"Louis Wain was on all our walls some 15 to 20 years ago," Ramsay MacDonald wrote in 1925. "Probably no artist has given a greater number of young people pleasure than he has." Louis Wain died only in 1939, a few days before his eightieth birthday, but circumstances and mental illness had virtually ended his curious career 25 years earlier. Several generations have now grown up to whom his name means nothing. But for millions over 50, his name, or the sight of one of his characteristic cat drawings, revives childhood memories, as they did for Ramsay MacDonald. For more than 30 years there were few nurseries without Louis Wain cats smiling down from the walls. Louis Wain books and annuals in the toy cupboard and Louis Wain postcards in an album. The cats he sketched and painted - at the rate of 1500 a year - were reproduced by the million in Britain and America. His publications fill three columns of the British Museum catalogue. Christmas 1903 alone was marked by the publication of 13 Louis Wain books and many drawings for Christmas numbers. But in their very nature these publications were ephemeral and collectors today appear ready to pay 10 or 20 times the published price for them. His later pictures made in a mental hospital have been collected for a different reason. He continued to draw and paint to the end, and as the familiar friendly cats changed into increasingly elaborate patterns with the progress of his illness they provide classic examples of schizophrenic art. Louis Wain's private schooling was fragmentary and a decision at 17 to become a musician was changed after six months' study because he decided art offered an easier path to the fame and fortune he desired. He studied for three years at a small London art school and stayed as a master. He was attracted to the then bohemian world of Fleet Street and tried to sell sketches to magazines. He sold his first - a drawing of bullfinches - soon after his twenty-first birthday. He failed to sell the next 30 pictures he offered this editor, but he slowly established himself as a press artist specialising in birds and animals. but never in cats.

At the age of 23 he married, and it was a black-and-white kitten given as a wedding present that almost accidentally transformed his life and won him world fame. Soon after marriage his wife was struck down by a lingering and fatal illness. Peter, the black-and-white cat, would sit on her bed, and during his long sickroom vigils Louis Wain sketched and caricatured Peter to amuse his wife. She urged him to show these cat pictures to editors, but Wain, then reporting dog and agricultural shows, took himself seriously as an artist. The remark of an editor, "Whoever would want to see a picture of a cat?" led to the pictures being put away until 1886, when Sir William Ingram, editor of the "Illustrated London News," realising the originality of some Louis Wain cats he saw, suggested a picture of a cats' Christmas party across two pages in the Christmas number. In a few days, drawing on his notebook of sketches of Peter, Wain produced a picture containing about 150 cats, each with its own expression, each doing something different. The picture made an immediate hit. Comments and requests for copies came from all over the world. Louis Wain found himself famous almost overnight.

Louis Wain Artwork

Found this little chap in Postcard Monthly featuring in an advertisement

Louis Wain Alphabet

For the eagle-eyed you will notice that the letters H and I are missing in this compilation provided by Pinterest - the search continues!

Cats & Tennis

As tennis is amongst my favourite themes - why not showcase Wain's love of this genre?

1904 Tennis Calendar

1903 "A Love Set" Calendar for 1904 - set of three to be hung on ribbon
Published by Raphael Tuck & Sons - image courtesy of : paulwebblog with thanks for this delightful 'find'.

Tennis & 'Love'

'One to Love' - image sourced from and courtesy of Chris Beetles

Cats & flowers

'Pansies and Tabby'

'A Bouquet for you'

Images sourced from Chris Beetles Gallery

Cat Love

What's not to love about these Cats and their kittens or are they cat-dolls? Images sourced from the Louis Wain pages on Pinterest

Romantic Cats

'A Kiss for my Valentine' - Oh! pray be very careful, dear; They'll hear you in the house I fear.

A Wain curiosity perhaps 'We's both love one another. Does oo love me? Say oo do, then we's both forever true' - baby talk as favoured by the Duke & Duchess of Windsor prior to the abdication

Louis Wain Christmas

Police Leapfrog

This is fabulous and appeals because of my 'Police' past and jesters have always held a fascination for me - with grateful thanks to Abe Books for supplying this image and description.

"A Wonderful and Playful Original Louis Wain Watercolor WAIN, Louis (1860-1939). "Leap-frog." [N.p.: n.d., ca. 1915]. Original pen, ink, and watercolor drawing. Signed at lower right. Image size: 13 3/8 x 10 1/2 inches; 340 x 265 mm. Matted, framed, and glazed. A wonderful example of a Louis Wain original watercolor drawing, depicting two cats, a brown tabby cat dressed as a policeman and a black cat with white markings on his face and white paws dressed as a jester and leaning on a cane, playing leap-frog on a sidewalk in front of a barber's shop, the door reading "Combs./Tonsorial/Artist/Hair Cut. 6d./Shaving. 6d./Wigs." There are three signs in the window behind them: "Mouse/Hair/Wash," "Keep Your/Fur Clean/and Your/Nose Cold," "Never Sit/on your Tail/it Spoils the/Fur." A highly colourful and playful example." Source : Abe Books

'Pussyland'

I do adore these gorgeous and cute faces!

Slippery Cats

Just another quirky offering from Louis Wain - image source from : TuckDBEphemera via Pinterest

Modern Tower of Babel

A Modern Tower of Babel - image sourced from and courtesy of Chris Beetles

War Satire

Not much information or provenance on this surprising satirical view by Louis wain - up to seeing this image I had no idea that the patriotic cat had teamed up with the Benelux countries - image courtesy of The Saleroom who state "Postcard, Louis Wain, Cats, 'We're all going to Berlin on the Spree' published by Soloman Bros Ltd, p.u 1917, scarce (knocks to edges o/w gd) in their sales blurb.

Ceramics

An unusual medium to find Wain's work on but nevertheless as charming as always - image and details sourced from Ruby Lane

Child's Pearlware Alphabet Plate - LOUIS WAIN ~ CATS - COME INTO THE GARDEN, MAUD - Charles Allerton Potteries - 19th Century ~ Staffordshire England
This is wonderful early child's transferware plate with a blue tinged pearlware glaze. The plate dates to around 1890. It measures a large 7 3/4 inches in diameter with a dark blue, nearly flow blue transfer printing and an alphabet border. The amusing central image is distinctly Louis Wain (1860-1939) style, featuring a trio of whimsically dressed cats and a parrot upon a perch. The plate is a tribute to Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem, " Come into the Garden, Maud ". Plates with descriptive images like this were made in the 19th century to be given as children's gifts for a special occasion or rewards of merit and were often used to aid in the instruction of young children.

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