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Sep 25, 2023 · Almost everyone has seen the famous Dogs Playing Poker series painted by Cassius Coolidge in 1903. These paintings have become some of the most popular and recognizable paintings in American art history, and certainly some of the most famous card-playing artwork in the world.
- Dogs Playing Poker is actually a series of paintings. Coolidge’s earliest explorations of dog paintings were made for cigar boxes. Then, in 1903, the 59-year-old artist started working for the “remembrance advertising” company Brown & Bigelow.
- The most popular of these paintings is of dogs cheating at poker. A Friend in Need pits a pair of bulldogs against five huge hounds. Who could blame them for slipping helpful cards under the table with their toes?
- These paintings gave C.M. Coolidge some fame in his sixties. Coolidge already had a quirky artistic claim to fame—he’s credited as the father of Comic Foregrounds, those carnival attractions where tourists can stick their heads atop a cartoon figure as a photo op.
- Dogs Playing Poker has never received much critical praise. These painting, which were commissioned for commercial use, are regarded most often as kitsch, art that is basically bad to the bone.
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (September 18, 1844 – January 13, 1934) was an American artist, mainly known for his series of portraits Dogs Playing Poker.
Dogs Playing Poker, by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, refers collectively to an 1894 painting, a 1903 series of sixteen oil paintings commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars, and a 1910 painting.
From the mid-1900s to the mid-1910s, Coolidge created a series of sixteen oil paintings for them, all of which featured anthropomorphic dogs, including nine paintings of Dogs Playing Poker, a motif that Coolidge is credited with inventing.
- American
- September 18, 1844
- Antwerp, United States
- January 13, 1934
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge Gallery. A Bachelor’s Dog. A Bold Bluff. A Friend in Need. Breach of Promise Suit. Higher Education. His Station and Four Aces. Kelly Pool. New Year’s Eve In Dogsville.
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Jun 6, 2018 · His knack for crafting playfully surreal images culminated in his magnum opus, the absurdist canine series for which he’s best remembered today. His earliest paintings of dogs playing poker, dating back to the 1870s, decorated cigar boxes and served as a way for tobacco companies to distinguish themselves from their near-identical competitors.
