Which Is the Original Dogs Playing Poker?

In 1903, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844 – 1934) painted a series of sixteen oil paintings entitled Dogs Playing Poker. The paintings depict anthropomorphized dogs, but the identities of the breeds of dogs are unknown.

In the original paintings, all of the dogs are seated around a table playing poker. The most popular of the paintings is called A Friend in Need, which shows eight dogs playing poker around a table.

All of the dogs have human-like expressions and are wearing clothes. seven of the dogs are smoking cigars, and one dog is drinking from a mug.

The original paintings were commissioned by Brown & Bigelow, a company that produced Cigars. The company used the paintings in an advertising campaign, and they were so popular that they became collectors’ items.

PRO TIP:The original Dogs Playing Poker painting is “A Friend in Need,” painted by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge in 1903. It is the most widely recognized and popular of the series, depicting a group of dogs sitting around a card table, playing what appears to be a game of poker.

Today, originals of Dogs Playing Poker can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

There are four known copies of Dogs Playing Poker that were made by Coolidge himself. One copy is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

, one is in a private collection, and two are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It is not known which is the original and which are the copies.

The original painting was most likely lost or destroyed during World War II.