"Without
question, the most recognized gambling paintings ever created are the
various renderings of dogs playing poker by C. M. Coolidge. In
fact, surveys have shown these paintings to be among the most recognizable
artwork of any type. Coolidge was born in upstate New York and began his
career as a druggist and a painter of house numbers and street signs.
He also founded a small newspaper called the Antwerp News. Coolidge was
already known for his paintings of dogs playing cards before he was approached
by the publishers Brown & Bigelow. The company hired him to create
calendars and other advertising products. Of the sixteen paintings of
dogs in a human situations created for Brown & Bigelow, nine of them
depicted dogs around a card table. .
Of
all C. M. Coolidge's dog paintings, his Dogs Playing Poker series
was the most famous of all. "A Friend in Need" is his most popular
one (pictured right). Replicas have adorned the walls of basements, bathrooms,
pool rooms, and poker dens all across America for a century. The scene
has a surprisingly modern look to it. Cheating is a focal point. The game,
without question, is five-card draw. The second most popular of the dog
paintings is "A Bold Bluff" (pictured above). The painting shows
the St. Bernard trying to bluff with only pair twos. The third most popular
painting is "Poker Sympathy" (pictured below). Here you can
see the bulldog beating his opponent with a straight flush against his
opponent's 4 of a kind Aces. A bad beat that a lot of poker players can
relate to.
In 2005, Two "Dogs Playing Poker" paintings cleaned house at
Doyle New York's annual Dogs in Art Auction, fetching a staggering $590,400.
After intense bidding, "A Bold Bluff" (pictured above) and "Waterloo:
Two" sold to a private collector from New York City.
Cassius
Marcellus Coolidge created the whimsical poker dogs, a series of oil
paintings made in the 1920s depicting a group not only playing poker but
engaged in other usually human activities. It was the poker dogs who achieved
national recognition from the 30s through the 60s, by appearing on calendars
and in various other advertising media. This was an artistic subspecialty
for Coolidge that was preceded by a string of careers. In the upstate
New York town of Antwerp, Coolidge worked, almost simultaneously, as a
druggist, painter of street signs and house numbers, and founder of the
first newspaper and earliest bank - all within the years of 1868 and 1872.
It was after a trip to Europe in 1873 that he turned up in Rochester,
New York, as the portraitist of dogs whose life style mirrored the successful
middle-class humans of his time. Coolidge's first customers were the cigar
companies, who printed copies of his paintings for giveaways. His fortunes
rose when he signed a contract with the printers Brown & Bigelow, who
turned out hundreds of thousands of copies of his dog-genre subjects as
advertising posters, calendars and prints. Coolidge was also a banker,
shopkeeper, inventor and painter. He even penned an opera. Cassius married
late and had one daughter at the age of 66. He died in his nineties in
the 30s.
ProPokerGuide.com rates the Dogs Playing Poker series a perfect score
of 5 out of 5.
You can purchase
C. M. Coolidge's arts including the timeless classic "Dogs Playing
Poker" series at a great price with this link.
These frames and posters will be a great conversation pieve on any wall.
Be sure to check out our Poker
Poster Store for more poker art.
Dogs
Playing Poker by C. M. Coolidge
"Without
question, the most recognized gambling paintings ever created are the
various renderings of dogs playing poker by C. M. Coolidge. In
fact, surveys have shown these paintings to be among the most recognizable
artwork of any type. Coolidge was born in upstate New York and began his
career as a druggist and a painter of house numbers and street signs.
He also founded a small newspaper called the Antwerp News. Coolidge was
already known for his paintings of dogs playing cards before he was approached
by the publishers Brown & Bigelow. The company hired him to create
calendars and other advertising products. Of the sixteen paintings of
dogs in a human situations created for Brown & Bigelow, nine of them
depicted dogs around a card table. .
Of
all C. M. Coolidge's dog paintings, his Dogs Playing Poker series
was the most famous of all. "A Friend in Need" is his most popular
one (pictured right). Replicas have adorned the walls of basements, bathrooms,
pool rooms, and poker dens all across America for a century. The scene
has a surprisingly modern look to it. Cheating is a focal point. The game,
without question, is five-card draw. The second most popular of the dog
paintings is "A Bold Bluff" (pictured above). The painting shows
the St. Bernard trying to bluff with only pair twos. The third most popular
painting is "Poker Sympathy" (pictured below). Here you can
see the bulldog beating his opponent with a straight flush against his
opponent's 4 of a kind Aces. A bad beat that a lot of poker players can
relate to.
Cassius
Marcellus Coolidge created the whimsical poker dogs, a series of oil
paintings made in the 1920s depicting a group not only playing poker but
engaged in other usually human activities. It was the poker dogs who achieved
national recognition from the 30s through the 60s, by appearing on calendars
and in various other advertising media. This was an artistic subspecialty
for Coolidge that was preceded by a string of careers. In the upstate
New York town of Antwerp, Coolidge worked, almost simultaneously, as a
druggist, painter of street signs and house numbers, and founder of the
first newspaper and earliest bank - all within the years of 1868 and 1872.
It was after a trip to Europe in 1873 that he turned up in Rochester,
New York, as the portraitist of dogs whose life style mirrored the successful
middle-class humans of his time. Coolidge's first customers were the cigar
companies, who printed copies of his paintings for giveaways. His fortunes
rose when he signed a contract with the printers Brown & Bigelow, who
turned out hundreds of thousands of copies of his dog-genre subjects as
advertising posters, calendars and prints. Coolidge was also a banker,
shopkeeper, inventor and painter. He even penned an opera. Cassius married
late and had one daughter at the age of 66. He died in his nineties in
the 30s. 
