August 5, 1860

Louis Wain was an early and popular illustrator who used cats in his pictures.






Above is an illustration, dated to 1886 and used in a nice article on Louis Wain (August 5, 1860 to July 4, 1939), The article starts:

'Louis Wain was one of the most popular commercial illustrators in the history of England. Born in 1860, his anthropomorphic portrayals of cats captured the imagination of the Edwardian era and his work helped to elevate the profile and popularity of our feline friends to unprecedented heights. Before Wain, cats in England were often thought of with contempt but his work humanised them and helped to show them as something to be liked, admired and even loved.

'His illustrations were so popular that throughout the beginning of the twentieth-century most homes had at least one of his famous cat annuals and many nurseries had Wain posters hanging on their walls. “He made the cat his own” H.G. Wells once remarked. “He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world.” '

The link above has lots of nice illustrations Wain did, and a lengthy account of his life.