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Cassius Marcellus Coolidge

DECEMBER 15, 2006
Dogs Playing Poker
   On my mother's side of the family I was surrounded by Picasso's, Miro's, VanGogh's. On my fathers side I was surrounded by Cassius Coolidge.  I live in somewhere in the middle.
  Coolidge was known to friends and family as "Cash," is credited with creating Comic Foregrounds, life-size cutouts into which one's head was placed so as to be photographed as an amusing character. In 1903, Coolidge contracted with the advertising firm of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota, to create sixteen oil paintings of dogs in various human poses.
   Nine of them depict dogs playing poker. On February 15, 2005, two of these much imitated paintings, A Bold Bluff and Waterloo, went on the auction block expecting to fetch between $30,000 and $50,000 but surprisingly sold for $590,400..
© 2024 David Goldin