Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, an instantly recognizable commercial painter who has given the world the series of Dogs Playing Poker, was born in 1844, into a family of abolitionist Quaker farmers and was named after one of the most eloquent orators against slavery, nicknamed (with provisional anthropomorphism) “The Lion of White Hall.” Nicknamed “Cash” by friends and kin, he had no official training whatsoever, but was very active, publishing drawings in papers before he was 20.

The paintings along one of his favorite themes, mastiffs and Saint Bernards engaged in the activities normally attributed to humans, began with a commission in 1903. Well-bred and well-behaved dogs drink alcoholic libations, smoke cigars and pipes, and play five-card draw poker in nine out of sixteen of the paintings. Generally they are pictured as furry masculine types in fur coats or warm suits sitting around a table in a cozy room with the only source of light being a lamp above the table.

The players are established bourgeois, and seem to be reasonably well-behaved gentlemen, perhaps not altogether tame, but proper enough. The paintings reflect approximately the same period as that depicted in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. But Coolidge does not focus on the greed and violence of illegal underground clubs; rather, he shows poker finally emerge from the criminal murk into a more homely reality where decent members of society probably never bet more than a few symbolic cents and allowed themselves a few drops of bourbon when their wives weren’t looking. Poker was becoming common entertainment for most American men, not a means to make quick and dangerous money.

Respected members of society as early as 1875 gathered at large nocturnal poker sessions. Poker Chips was one of the publications dedicated to the game and most periodicals of the time included articles on poker in their content. Standard rules for playing draw-poker were unified and distributed among all the poker clubs beginning at the turn of the century. This was a first. It was even reported that baseball had lost its status as the national game.

Interestingly, the ability to play poker and use a gun, in no relation whatsoever to any criminal reference, became gradually the accoutrements of a “real man.” If a fellow played a good game of poker they must also be good soldiers, good law men, and good, honest politicians. During World War I in Europe, in 1914, poker became THE mode of entertainment among the two million troops and of Harry Truman himself. As an artillery officer, Truman fine-tuned both draw and stud poker. And at the end of the war with the signing of the peace treaty, he and his combat comrades played infinite games of poker waiting to be shipped home. They continued to play the game after their arrival on home soil.

It is the ability to bet large and shrewdly, take big risks, and bluff successfully for profit of course, that is also perceived to be the mark of the man that survives in battle, is willing and able to take on dangerous jobs like law enforcement or to be successful at any type of occupation that requires brains and muscle.

Cash Coolidge was around at a time that gave him every opportunity to observe the sort of person, the clothes, the card games and the milieu in which all of these elements came together in basement clubs that gave rise to the essence of his art. Through his art, which consisted of a vivid imagination and anthropomorphic humor, he created a representation of the life of the bourgeoisie at the time enjoying a game that had been around for more than 200 years.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at Aced Poker. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.

categories: poker,gambling,games,card games,dogs,art,entertainment