Lot 3687: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge

American, 1844-1934
A BOLD BLUFF and WATERLOO: TWO
Each signed CM Coolidge (ll)
Oils on canvas
Each 24 x 34 inches

Provenance:
Collection of William Zeckendorf, Sr.
Private Collection, Connecticut

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was a man of many talents who, over his long lifetime was a banker, shopkeeper, inventor and painter - he even penned an opera. However, he is certainly best known to generations of Americans for his paintings of dogs playing poker. In 1903 Coolidge was commissioned to produce 16 paintings for the advertising firm of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota. The majority of these works depicted dogs performing many very human activities, chiefly playing poker.

The present works display a distinct pair. The sequential narrative follows the same 'players' in the course of a hand of poker. In the first, our main character, the St. Bernard holds a weak hand as the rest of the crew maintains their best poker faces. In the following scene, we see the St. Bernard raking in the large pot, much to the very obvious dismay of his fellow players. Apparently, Coolidge originally titled the two Judge St. Bernard Stand Pat on Nothing and Judge St. Bernard Wins on a Bluff1. They were most likely re-titled A Bold Bluff and Waterloo for convenience by Brown & Bigelow, who then mass marketed the images.

Although his name is not commonly remembered today, Coolidge's images seem permanently seared into the American public conscience. They are among our most important and endearing images of American popular culture and stand beside the icons of other illustrators such as Rockwell, Flagg and Wyeth.

We are grateful to 1Garner Fredrickson and his forthcoming publication, Poker dogs: The Life and Work of C.M. Coolidge, and Joseph Richey's Web site, dogsplayingpoker.org, for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.