Get to know 4 artists who suffered from mental illness (and how it affected their art)

On World Mental Health Day, we will meet 4 artists who suffered from mental illness and see their reflection in their works.

The subject of mental illness and art has often been discussed, especially in recent years. It is undeniable that there is a relationship, especially if we think of art as an elementary form of human communication.

From this perspective, artistic production would not only be a response to disease but a form of output, a release valve.

artists who suffered from mental illness

30.03.1853  Vincent Van Gogh

The painter Vincent van Gogh is well-known for his artwork and for a particular aspect of his personal life: the post-impressionist spent some time in a psychiatric clinic. There, he produced works of art such as Starry Night and many of his famous self-portraits.

Besides suffering from anxiety and depression, the artist also faced a crisis of epilepsy. Some experts believe that the painter also suffered from a xanthophyll overdose – and this factor affected his art, since Van Gogh was able to see more yellowish colors, he intensified yellows in his paintings.

In addition to Van Gogh, many other artists had similar problems. Today we’ll introduce four artists who suffered from mental illness – and how it affected their art.

artists who suffered from mental illness | Louis Wain

Louis Wain was an English illustrator born in 1860 who became well known for his illustrations of anthropomorphic cats.

Louis Wain, The Bachelor Party, dates unknown, private collection. Wikimedia Commons.

The big-eyed cats, who are usually in social situations, such as games or dating, were not initially created on a commission. Although Wain was already known by the public, he began to draw cats to amuse his wife.

Carol Singing, Louis Wain, watercolor

Unfortunately, shortly after he married, Wain lost his wife to cancer. And her death was the trigger for a deep depression in the artist’s life.

At age 57, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a disorder that affects not only a person’s way of thinking, but also their behavior. Wain began to act aggressively, and so spent the last 15 years of his life in psychiatric institutions.

It was not only his personality that was affected: Wain’s works of art also began to have a style less and less similar to his initial artworks. His cats, previously smiling and cuddly, began to show different traits, they became more geometric and more colorful. Most of these psychedelic kittens were born when Wain was hospitalized in Napsbury Hospital, where the artist eventually died.

Louis Wain, Kaleidoscope cat, c.1930, coleção privada. Wikimedia Commons.

artists who suffered from mental illness | Edvard Munch

“I can not get rid of my illnesses, for there is a lot in my art that exists only because of them”.

Wrote the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, famous for the painting The Scream, and for being one of the main artists of the expressionist movement.

Munch’s family background already predisposed him to possible mental health problems. His mother and one of his sisters died of tuberculosis when he was very young. His father suffered from depression and his other sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Munch did not go unscathed. He had a mental breakdown in 1908, which was aggravated by alcoholism, and he was admitted to a mental health clinic in Denmark.

In addition to the known mental problems, the painter still faced other issues: in 1937, his works were confiscated by Hitler’s government, and labeled by the dictator “degenerate art“.

Munch wrote that “sickness, madness, and death were the black angels that guarded my crib,” and he even came to be diagnosed with neurasthenia, a clinical condition associated with hysteria and hypochondria. His work is characterized by figures whose sense of despair and anguish are evident. The strokes and colors that Munch uses in his compositions often demonstrate his own state of mind.

Edvard Munch, The Scream, Google Art Project