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Wallpaper Cat
Wain drew many wallpaper cats during his stay in Bethlem asylum. Some have claimed that these drawings were an indication of his deteriorating mental state, since filling in pictures with detailed patterns is often a sign of schizophrenia. Others have doubted such theories, since he continued to produce drawings in his older style both while doing the wallpaper cats and afterwards. Both Brian Reade and Rodney Dale independantly came to the conclusion that Wain interest in patterns stemmed from his mother's designs of tapestries and fabrics. Dale describes it so:
It seems to me at least as reasonable to suppose that Louis Wain was experimenting wih the patterns which he remembered from his youth as that he was deteriorating.
(from Catland)
