C.M. Coolidge's hilarious and iconic paintings of dogs playing poker

A Bold Bluff:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4135/w09uthqm.png

Waterloo:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7555/3xigmnf0.png

A Friend in Need:
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2522/9tq3gscd.png

Pinched With Four Aces:
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6618/gyyihx9r.png

Sitting up with a Sick Friend:
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4046/nv74a364.png

Poker Sympathy:
http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8072/wcfqm3je.png

Stranger in Camp:
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2953/39odn98s.png

His Station and Four Aces:
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2411/dqw7yhlu.png

Post Mortem:
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5191/tclf3mv9.png

"Sitting up with a Sick Friend" could've been a masterpiece with just one minor alteration:

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/8666/coollidgegoya.png

but as it is, I don't see an obvious frontrunner in this poll.

this is the most important poll of our lifetimes

I tend to favor the ones where the dogs wear no clothes. This requires greater emphasis on physical expressiveness to carry the thematic elements.

Great thread. I go with Friend in Need. The dog receiving the card is pulling the deception off unbelievably well. I just hope none of the other players are armed.

Waterloo, for the range of facial expressions.

Although now I'm slightly disappointed to realise that the dog in the middle was wearing spectacles. I thought his monocle had fallen off in surprise.

Coolidge also invented those upright painted boards that you stand behind and poke your head through so that you look like you're a bodybuilder or a bikini babe. what a guy!

lol this is an excellent fact

I vote for "A Friend In Need" based on the title alone. Learning that painting's official name was a revelation.

Also, I think we've polled these, but I don't know how to search for .jogs yet.

http://thenewnixon.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/090_tb.jpg

http://www.andythomas.com/images/091_GOG.jpg

if Truman didn't sweep that one, then I really don't know what to think.

I tend to favor the ones where the dogs wear no clothes. This requires greater emphasis on physical expressiveness to carry the thematic elements.

the train one is probably the worst of the bunch. aside from the nervous/whiny bulldog with his mouth agape, there's nothing particularly dog-like about the subjects' postures or facial expressions. I mean, you could replace their heads with human heads without making the scene any more or less interesting.

in some of the other paintings, though, this guy is good at combining uniquely canine gestures and expressions with his obvious "good old boys" trope. I love the collie that slyly and ashamedly creeps away from the cops in "Pinched with Four Aces" and the great dane's pout in "Waterloo".

I like to think that the pug in the first two paintings was the inspiration for the lolrus's "I has a bucket"/"noooo they be stealin' my bucket" meme. I won't let anyone change my mind about this.

Why would the dogs have a mantle clock that had a dog on it?

It's a naked dog, d'y'see?

Calvin Coolidge is more talented than I thought.

did abe lincoln tell a joke or what? also i can't pick a winner from these

On February 15, 2005, the originals of A Bold Bluff and Waterloo were auctioned as a pair to an undisclosed buyer for US $590,400.

Holy shit

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted for a bold bluff

you can tell that your friend is a wimpy, starry-eyed phony if you see "A Bold Bluff" hanging on the wall of his mancave without "Waterloo" alongside it. said practice is about as defensible as displaying the Eden panel of "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" by itself on a church altar and keeping the Earth and Hell panels hidden because they might disturb the congregation. "Waterloo" may be a raw and upsetting scene of loss, but that's what poker is all about, and if you can't deal with that, then I have no desire to bro down with you.

a friend in need wins

for some reason a stranger in camp upsets me

http://i56.tinypic.com/2n1evc3.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.