The Poker Dogs of C.M. Coolidge

During the first 50 years of his life, Coolidge held a number of jobs but nothing held his interest for very long. He tried his hand as a bookkeeper, comic illustrator, druggist, journalist, author, inventor, etc.

One of his many elaborate projects was the writing of a comic opera concerning the elimination of mosquitoes. This opera was actually produced but it didn't make money.

The one consistent endeavor he held onto was his love of comics and art. Between jobs and in his free time, he would draw cartoons for area newspapers and would do caricatures of people.

Around the turn of the century, when Coolidge was about 50 years old, he started to make paintings of dogs. These were mainly purchased by cigar companies and used as giveaways.

Coolidge's big break came when the advertising firm Brown & Bigelow approached him to do a series of paintings that would be used on calendars and other memorabilia. That was in 1903. Around this time is when his famous poker dog paintings got underway.

Over the next ten years, Coolidge created 16 paintings of dogs - seven that portrayed dogs playing pool. The other nine were dogs surrounding a poker table. By putting dogs in situations familiar to middle class Americans, C.M. Coolidge created an instant kitsch fad. It certainly helped the cigar and calendar businesses for which he worked. A few of his original dog paintings sold for US $2,000 to US $10,000 dollars back then, which was an astonishing amount for the time period!

Poker Sympathy

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His Station And Four Aces

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C.M. Coolidge was a bachelor for most of his life. When he was 64, he met Gertrude Kimmel, an art student who was doing some lettering work for him at the time. They were married in 1909 and had a daughter a year later.

It's interesting to note, that although his poker playing dogs met with instant success, his wife and daughter Marcella did not like them. In one interview, his daughter states that neither she nor her mother shared her father's interest in dogs and they did not take the paintings seriously. (They do seem to have benefited from them, however!)

Everyone knows C.M. Coolidge's images of poker dogs but few know his name. Andy Warhol was influenced by his work, and Coolidge set a precedent for the Weimaraner photos of William Wegman. And the influence of Coolidge is undeniable in Arthur Sarnoff's paintings of dogs playing craps and pool .

The art historian Moira F. Harris refers to Coolidge as "America's most famous anonymous artist."

Gwen Acheson, a Philadelphia historian, calls him C.M. Coolidge "the Michelangelo of the dog world."(1)

Alison Cooney of Sotheby's, told the New York Times in 2002, "These paintings are a humorous, ironic take, a jab at middle-class America."

New York Times poker colomnist James McManus wrote the following: "These days his paintings are considered either calendar kitch, pasteurized American cheese or a pithily accurate gloss on male poker fellowship. They have also become rather haute."(New York Times, December 3, 2006)

"Critic Annette Ferrara describes Coolidges 'dogs playing poker' as "indelibly burned into (the American collective-schlock subconscious) through incessant reproduction on all manner of pop ephemera." from the article "Annette Ferrara: Lucky Dog!" Published by Ten by Ten Online Magazine in 2006.

(1) From Dan Barry's New York Times column "Artist's Fame Is Fleeting, But Dog Poker Is Forever" of June 14, 2002

Breach of Promise Suit

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Bachelor's Dog

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One to Tie, Two to Win

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Ten Miles to a Garage

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New Year's Eve in Dogville

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For years his images of dogs playing poker while drinking, smoking, and basically getting into trouble graced bachelor pads, bars, and taverns around the country.

In 2005, a pair of his poker dog paintings entitled "A Bold Bluff" and "Waterloo," expected to go for US$30,000 to US$60,000, surprised the art world by selling for $590,00 for the pair.

You can see these paintings below. Please look carefully. They may look the same but they are not.

After his success with painting dogs, a new idea provided him a profitable income. He started the invention of "Comic Foregrounds", which are wooden life-size cartoon stand-ups with the face cut out so that one can place their head for funny photos.

If you would like to know more about the life of C.M. Coolidge, please see my article on him: Dogs Playing Poker: Beyond Art, Behind Coolidge. Some of this information has been taken that article.

Sitting up with a Sick Friend

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Friend in Need

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Coolidge Dogs Playing Pool

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Arthur Sarnoff (1912-2000) was a student of John Clymer and Andrew Wyeth. He did commercial advertisements for the large American companies and provided illustrations for many of the magazines of the time - McCall's, American Weekly, Collier's, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, etc. He loved subjects that were whimsical or glamorous, and he loved Americana. He illustrated many comics and created a successful series of pin-up girls.

When all is said and done, the artwork that he will always be most remembered for is his series of dogs playing pool. In fact, Sarnoff's painting "The Hustler" was one of the best selling posters throughout the 1950's. This series was directly influenced by C.M. Coolidge.