A century ago illustrator Louis Wain was a household name. Who was the man behind the cat drawings?

Cats and electricity obsessed Louis Wain (1860-1939). Painting felines made him famous. The images, relentlessly anthropomorphic, are very odd. As portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in “The ...

Benedict Cumberbatch portrays the titular English painter in 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' for Amazon Studios.

A Louis Wain illustration of cats singing carols Public domain via Wikimedia Commons In 1886, a little-known artist named Louis Wain contributed a rollicking illustration of festive cats to the ...

Benedict Cumberbatch has said he embarked on a “journey of discovery” to play the eccentric cat artist Louis Wain in his new film.

The story of Wain’s life and preoccupation with cats as well and their connection to the emergence of electricity unfolds in The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch ...

6 How troubled artist Louis Wain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in new film The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, accidentally invented pet cat Credit: Alamy 6 ...

“Wain drew cats doing human things—playing cricket, taking tea, going to the doctor—and the pet-loving public lapped it up,” writes Jonathan Jones in the Guardian.