Sold at Auction: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge

Artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was born in 1844 near Antwerp, New York. He established its first bank and newspaper, bought and sold two drug stores, became a school superintendent, served as town clerk, and was a travel writer. Though he took private art lessons, he was mostly self-taught, illustrating books and advertisements. Before creating his popular paintings, he invented comic foregrounds, the cartoon, carnival cut-outs tourists put their faces in for souvenir photographs.

When Brown and Bigelow hired artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge in 1903 to produce oil paintings for advertisements, calendars, and promotional prints, his series Dogs Playing Poker was born. Its popularity led to the artist offering C.M. Coolidge paintings for sale. Though their commercial origins landed them in the critical realm of low-brow art, recent critics argue that the series of C.M. Cooldige original prints satirizes upper-class America's excesses and attitudes. Build an art collection to hand down to future generations, and browse the online galleries of striking oil paintings for sale.