Dogs playing poker. Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Dogs playing poker or dogs playing poker in paintings Dogs playing poker high resolution painting

Art is one of the ways of knowledge, creative activity and self-realization. If you do it seriously, it brings good money. The main thing is to choose a field of activity and a topic, and some people choose poker as well. After all, you can not only play this wonderful game, but also earn money by painting pictures on canvas and on asphalt. Remarkable examples of such activity can be such artists as Nadezhda Khuzina, Cassius Coolidge and Kurt Wenner.

Nadezhda Khuzina became famous for drawing Vladimir Putin in a game against the famous professional TonyG; the piquancy of the picture is given by the fact that Vladimir Putin calls Tony’s bluff with the smallest pair. The author of the picture depicted herself as a dealer.

American artist Cassius Coolidge made a lot of money, becoming famous thanks to a series of paintings called “Dogs Playing Poker”. He loved these animals very much, so he decided to capture the Americans in this image. 109 years have passed, and poker companies continue to make money, auctioning reproductions of paintings, selling dog figurines and cards with their images. Collectors spare no expense in purchasing them, influenced by the popularity of poker.

A Friend in Need

Waterloo (originally titled Judge St. Bernard Wins on a Bluff)

Stranger in Camp

His Station and Four Aces

Only a Pair Of Deuces

Pinched With Four Aces

The Coolidge Dogs

These pictures are associated with poker rooms, where poker games are also played cheerfully with beer, whiskey and cigarettes. The people there are completely different, not alike, like the dog breeds: collies, bulldogs, St. Bernards and Great Danes. They differ in their level of professionalism, age and financial status, but all of them are characterized by bluff, emotions and a thirst for profit. All these moments are very skillfully illuminated in a series of paintings by the artist. Many images are found in video games, books and films about poker.

Contemporary author Kurt Wenner paints not only oil paintings, but also, fulfilling public and private orders, draws with chalk on asphalt and paving stones, impressing everyone with his works. Kurt left his job at NASA because of his love for classical art, and went to Rome with a great desire to create in Europe. He achieved great heights in his business - and is even considered one of the authors of the “3D Art on the Sidewalk” movement. “Chalk Masterpieces” was the title of a National Geographic film about Wenner. At European competitions, Kurt Wenner won more than one gold medal. Many companies, including poker companies such as Partypoker, ordered advertising from him. The master of street painting also expresses himself in interactive 3D art.

Poker has become such a popular game that paintings are already being painted in its glory. Moreover, the paintings gain no less fame, even if they depict... dogs instead of people! One of these works of art went under the hammer for 658 thousand dollars!

Poker painting from 1894 sold for $658,000

This is a painting by an American artist.Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844 – 1934) “Poker Game”. It was written backin 1894, however, what is happening on it is clear and familiar to modern people: green cloth, chips, cards, cigars, whiskey and, oddly enough, dogs. However, the dogs look very natural on the canvas and behave with dignity, as befits real poker players.

Coolidge's work was exhibited atSotheby'sNovember 18th. The auction initially valued the painting at $400,000 - $600,000, and as a result of the auction its value reached$658.000 . As a result, the canvas went under the hammer to the collection of an unknown buyer.

“Game of Poker.” 1894

The advertising campaign spanned decades

Interestingly, during the artist’s lifetime, his works were worth much less. Coolidge painted in oils16 paintingsby order of the companyBrown & Bigelowfor advertising cigars. He began collaborating with this company in 1903 and received from it for his creationsno more than $10,000. Apparently the artist strongly associated gambling and smoking, which is why nine of these paintings depict dogs playing poker.

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At one time, they did not find a place for themselves in the art world, but they were familiar to many: these images were printed on calendars, posters, T-shirts, coffee cups, and advertisements. They were hung on the walls of college dorms and bars all over the world, but primarily in America. According to the sitementalfloss.com, they became especially popularin the 70s of the XX century.

A man's friend is known in need!

Let us add that in February 2005, two other paintings by Cassius Coolidge were sold at auction, also for a huge amount of money. Paintings"Waterloo" And “Bold bluff”both were rated at$594.400 .

Coolidge's most famous work with poker-playing dogs is considered"Friend is known in trouble" . Here the cheating bulldog passes the ace of clubs under the table to the neighbor on the left so that he collects four of a kind.

"Dogs Playing Poker" is a series of paintings by artist Cassius Coolidge. English variant title of the series is called "Dogs Playing Poker". The paintings were painted back in 1903. In general series of paintings “Dogs playing poker” was born thanks to a calendar manufacturing company. It was the order for the production of drawings for the calendar that served as the basis for this series. Why dogs, and even those playing poker? It’s just that Cassius Coolidge’s favorite subject of paintings was big dogs doing the same thing as most ordinary Americans. And in those years, poker, cigars and beer were very popular entertainment among noble Americans. Immediately after the release of the calendar, it became very popular among ordinary Americans. In almost every home in those years one could find a calendar hanging on the wall with one of the paintings from this series.

Series paintings “Dogs playing poker” consists of 16 paintings, in 9 of which dogs play poker. Moreover, none of the paintings are called “Dogs Playing Poker.” It’s just that this is usually the name given to the most famous painting in the series “A Friend in Need”. These paintings are quite popular among collectors. So in 2005, two paintings from the series were sold at auction in New York for a record price of $600 thousand. Although experts estimated them at a maximum of $50 thousand. Apparently the price was influenced by the popularity of poker as a game all over the world. Below are some paintings from the series “Dogs playing poker”. Isn't it true that dogs are really cute and charming? The pictures turned out really wonderful.

ABOUT THE ARTIST CASSIUS COOLIDGE

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was born in 1844 in a suburb of New York into the family of a wealthy farmer. The boy received his name in honor of his brother, a prominent statesman of that time.

For his ingenuity and desire to obtain commercial benefits from his ideas, Coolidge was nicknamed "Cash" by his friends. For example, the well-known cardboard or plank stencils for photographing people against an unusual and funny background were invented by Coolidge. It was this invention that brought him his first impressive capital.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was a very multifaceted personality. He managed to try himself as a banker, shop owner, journalist and inventor, and even composed an opera. But his famous series of paintings with dogs brought him real fame, fame and money. Then he was already 60 years old.

THE STORY OF “DOGS PLAYING POKER”

In 1903, the Minnesota advertising firm Brown & Bigelow commissioned Coolidge to create illustrations for a calendar advertising a cigar company. What exactly should be depicted in the illustrations was up to Coolidge to decide for himself. Coolidge's idea to present dogs in the image of people who perform actions typical only for humans turned out to be very successful and was to the taste of the customers. Already for the first two illustrations, Coolidge received a fee of 10 thousand dollars!

As soon as the first examples of calendars illustrated by Coolidge were released from print, they created a real sensation! Brown & Bigelow calendars became a symbol of fashion and style of that time! The illustrations on the calendars convincingly and accurately reflected the life and interests of Americans at that time. The series consisted of 16 paintings, parodicly telling about certain moments from the life of the middle class, but most of it - 9 paintings - depicted dogs playing poker! This series of 9 paintings was called “Dogs Playing Poker”.

Over more than 100 years, Coolidge's paintings have been reproduced many times in a variety of forms: as copies, prints, media illustrations, books, movies, cartoons, board and video games, on cigar boxes and, of course, on playing card backs. . Many gambling establishments consider it their duty to decorate their walls with copies or reproductions of the famous “Dogs Playing Poker.”

In 2005, at an auction in New York, the paintings “Bold Bluff” and “Waterloo” from the series “Dogs Playing Poker” were sold for a record amount for this artist - $590,400 to the private collection of a passionate poker fan. It is very likely that such a high price for which the paintings were sold was partly due to the popularity of the game Poker itself throughout the world today.

There is another interesting success of poker dogs. According to the ranking of the most popular dogs in pop culture, which was compiled by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in connection with the 125th anniversary of the club, “Poker Dogs” took pride of place in the top ten leaders - sixth place. Some 76,000 people took part in the online vote to choose their favorite dog characters from television, film, literature, sports and the arts.

In an even more interesting form, the owners of the Sands casino in Atlantic City reminded the world about poker dogs. They brought the paintings to life by organizing an original advertising campaign: specially invited trained dogs, circus-style, deftly imitated the characters in the famous series of paintings by Cassius Coolidge “Dogs Playing Poker” in the hall of a gambling house. Five dog-artists, accompanied by trainers, perform a simple encore show: they pretend to be a group of experienced poker players, barking as a sign to the dealer that another card is required.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURES “DOGS PLAYING POKER”

A favorite subject of all the paintings in the Dogs Playing Poker series are huge dogs such as mastiffs, collies, Great Danes and St. Bernards doing things that only humans can do; they drink bottles of beer or whiskey, smoke cigars or old-fashioned meerschaum pipes, and enjoy playing five-card draw poker. In most cases, they sit in a cozy room around a round gaming table covered with green cloth. The only source of light is a shaded lamp hanging in the center, above the table.

It's easy to see that AAAA is Coolidge's favorite card combination. This very rare combination in poker is clearly present in four pictures. Perhaps this suggests that the artist himself, when playing poker, dreamed of getting this particular combination in his hands.

As for the dogs themselves, the poker players in Coolidge's paintings are representatives of the big bourgeoisie - judges and other lawyers, businessmen. The only female characters in the entire series are a pair of hounds trying to disperse the players with their unopened umbrellas in the painting "Visiting a Sick Friend."

Here are some of the most popular pictures with our descriptions of what is happening.

1. “Help a friend”

The meaning can be seen as a team game of small dog-players against big bosses. They can't handle large dogs alone. But, if we look closely at the details, we see that the big dogs, who stayed up past midnight, won almost nothing - their stacks of chips are very small. But the cunning bulldogs seem to have cheated more than once - they have almost all the chips on the table.

2. "Bold bluff"

The first of 2 paired paintings (the second is Waterloo). The picture was painted in 1909. A dog named "St. Bernard" is desperately bluffing and trying to get his hands on the pot. "St. Bernard" pushed forward a very large stack of chips, causing the other dogs to be amazed. Dogs try to understand by the expression of their partner’s muzzle whether he is bluffing? We know he's bluffing because we can see his weak card, but like a true poker player, St. Bernard manages to keep his poker face, which is so important in this game.

3. Waterloo

Here we see that "St. Bernard" has already won the pot and is raking in the chips with both paws. The other dogs bark when they see the weak cards dealt to them.

4. “Poker. Sympathy"

One of the dogs went All-in with four aces in hand, but lost everything to a straight flush of diamonds from 2 to 6. All the dogs, except the winner, are simply amazed at the “moving” of the quad of aces and look sympathetically at the loser.

5. “Visiting a sick friend”

Wives expose their husbands when they catch them playing poker, not believing the “legend” about a sick friend they needed to visit.

6. "Arrested with Four Aces"

Four police officers interrupt the game and the dogs clearly don't look happy. One of the dogs tries to escape. It is unknown why the police came to the room. Perhaps poker was already banned in America then?

7. "His station and four aces"

The conductor informs Bernard, who is putting on his coat, that the train is approaching his station and he will have to get off before finishing his hand with four aces.