A series of paintings "Dogs play poker" at one timebecame a real event in the art world. The interest in Cassius Coolidge's unusual works continues today. They want to watch for a long time, noticing all the new piquant details, emotions of characters, winning or hopeless combinations of cards.
An unusual story, embodied by the artist, inspired both his contemporaries and admirers of the art of the XXI century. Our article will tell you about these unusual works.
In the early twentieth century, Cassius Cooling received an order fromtrading company to write a series of works that will be printed on the advertising calendar. Since cigars were the strategic product of the customer, they certainly had to be present in the pictures - this condition was the only one. In the rest, Cassius was given complete freedom.
He decided to implement his idea and depict anthropomorphic dogs dressed in frock coats and kettles at the card table. The right atmosphere was emphasized by cigar smoke.
The author of the pictures "Dogs play poker" createdreally successful promotional product. He immediately liked the customer and found a response in the hearts of the man in the street. The images were used to print calendars, which sold out in a huge print run.
The artist created sixteen paintings. But dogs play poker only on nine of them. However, the plots of other works echo the main idea of the series.
For all the paintings is characterized by a realistic image style, emotionality, a certain share of sarcasm.
Pay attention to the heat of passion, reigning there,where dogs play poker! Coolidge's paintings immerse the viewer in a peculiar world. Each of these works is special. Let's consider some of them in more detail.
In the picture "A friend is known in trouble" we see that a couple of bulldogs cheat, passing cards to each other. This brings fruit: they have already managed to break the main bank.
"Courageous bluff" and "Waterloo" - pictures-sisters.On the first calm and self-assured St. Bernard with an unsuccessful combination of cards misleads the partners in the game. He's clearly bluffing! In this doubt the viewer does not, because his cards can easily be discerned. But for the players they remain a secret. And the partners in the game believed in bluffing, this is evident from the second picture, on which our hero breaks a huge jackpot. Of course, the virtuoso game of St. Bernard produced a furor.
But the next player is not lucky.He collected an excellent combination, but he did not have time to win: the cops were coming in. "Arrested with four aces" - this is the name of the picture. Was any of the players a cheater or the police covered the underground casino, we do not know. The author did not begin to focus on this, giving the viewer the opportunity to interpret the prehistory in his own way.
What happens in the picture "Visiting a patientfriend ", everything is clear to everyone. Men decided to quietly retire with the cards under the pretext of a visit to the enraged comrade, but their plans broke his wife. The ladies are furious, and the gentlemen are in a panic. By the way, this is the only picture in the entire series, on which there are female images.
A series of paintings by Cassius Coolidge gained a lotconnoisseurs. In the beginning of the last century calendars with reproductions hung in almost every house, being the personification of involvement in fashion and art. They were a real boom.
Soon the dogs began to print on souvenirs,playing cards, postcards, notebooks. By the way, today such an accessory, dating back to the beginning of the century, is a welcome acquisition for many collectors.
Today, a series of paintings "Dogs play poker", toohas many fans. Like a hundred years ago, the plot is used for advertising purposes by producers of goods for animals, souvenirs, printed publications. On the web, you can find a lot of fan-art, where the heroes of popular TV shows, cartoons and even computer games are sitting at the card table.
Answering the question about how much the paintings cost"Dogs play poker", you can give the following example. In 2005, at one of the New York auctions, an unknown buyer purchased "Bold Bluff" and "Waterloo" for a private collection for almost $ 600,000.
It is worth noting that a considerable amount of money can be worth a calendar of a century ago with reproduction.
