Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Cassius Coolidge and Dogs Playing Poker About this episode Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s most well-known art is the Dogs Playing Poker series. He was a true Renaissance man, and even patented a style of kitsch art.
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2:09 Holly Frey? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:20 Holly Frey? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey.
2:22 Tracy V. Wilson? And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:24 Holly Frey? Odds are really good that you probably don't immediately recognize the name of the artist that we're talking about today, but they are just about equally good that you have seen his work. He is sometimes called, and I love this, "The Dog World's Michelangelo."
2:42 Holly Frey? Although there's another artist who will get invoked later, but Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's most well-known art is the Dogs Playing Poker series. But even with that, those paintings often get misnamed. We'll talk about that. But he also contributed, and in one case patented, other types of art that have become common throughout the world. He really was a true Renaissance man. He was interested in a lot of different things and in using his creativity across a variety of disciplines. So I thought he would be fun to talk about today.
3:12 Tracy V. Wilson? So Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was born on September 18th, 1844, in between Antwerp, New York and Philadelphia, New York. So Antwerp was, still is, a very tiny town, and it's often referenced by its larger neighbor to the southwest, which is Watertown. His farmer parents, Nathan and Martha Coolidge, were Quakers. They were abolitionists. A bunch of sources say that they named their son after the brother of abolitionist Henry Clay. I think it is way more likely that they named him after Cassius Marcellus Clay, who was Henry Clay's cousin and was a prominent abolitionist in his own right. Cassius and
3:56 Tracy V. Wilson? his younger siblings, John, Clinton, and Abby, were raised in an abolitionist household, and it seems like Nathan and Martha had at least one other child who may not have survived their childhood. Coolidge went by the name Cash, and that shows up spelled with both a C and a K. But in later years, when he made art, he pretty consistently used the K spelling. Cash went to the school in Antwerp before moving on to Poughkeepsie to take business courses at Eastman's College.
4:26 Holly Frey? Yeah, and like, letters among the family, some people will use the C and some people will use the K, but you can very clearly see when he signs art, he uses K and signs it Cash. Coolidge is, as I said earlier, often described as a sort of Renaissance man, and his earliest career moves were certainly not in the art field that he became known for. In 1871, he opened Antwerp's first bank, the Bank of Antwerp, in a building that he constructed. And this sounds a little bit out of the blue, but it seems that Cash had some experience in banking because he had worked at the Eastman College Bank while he was going to school, and a lot of his courses at the school were ones that would help him run a financial institution.
5:07 Tracy V. Wilson? He's also said to have worked briefly as a druggist and a handyman, and to have eventually purchased the drugstore as an investment. He doesn't appear to have remained active in the running of the bank. He moved to Rochester in 1873. He had never been the bank president, as at its founding, another man, John D. Ellis, held that title. He eventually sold the drugstore and the bank, as well as a second drugstore he'd opened with one of his brothers. The bank building burned down in 1889, although it was rebuilt. That same bank, the Jefferson Bank, also commissioned a portrait from Coolidge.
5:48 Holly Frey? He dabbled in journalism as well, and he started a short-lived newspaper in Antwerp. And then after that failed, he became a writer for the Watertown Times. Most of his work for that paper involved writing accounts of his travels to Europe that he took in the early 1870s. That was in a serial called Cash's Column. Coolidge also had so many other jobs in his early adult life, including being a sign painter, being the Antwerp Town Clerk, being a maple sap collector, a school superintendent, and even a farmhand.
6:22 Tracy V. Wilson? At some point, Cash traveled to New York City. He might have taken art lessons and he eventually started drawing to make money, first as a cartoonist for local papers. He also used his drawing skills as a performance. He would charge people to watch him sketch at a super fast pace. Yet another job was drawing illustrations for his cousin Azanath Coolidge's books. Those illustrations were incredibly detailed, full-page works. Azanath's books seemed to have been largely ways to talk about the Quaker ideals of peace in fictional settings. A 1908 review of one of these books in the periodical The Advocate of Peace reads,
7:04 Tracy V. Wilson? quote, "The principles of peace are being taught not only by tracts, lectures, and treatises on international law. They come into all kinds of writing and frequently appear in the present-day story and novel. The prophet of peace, a story with an old-fashioned farmhouse setting illustrated generously by quaint and clever pictures of country life, teaches peace in some of the conversations held by its characters. While not a contribution of technical value to the literature of the peace movement, it has its use in calling the attention of the reader to the wisdom of peace and the mistakes of war."
7:43 Holly Frey? Similarly, Azanath's preface to another book that he wrote about an Independence Day disaster talks a lot about how the idea of national pride is often used to get men to agree to go make war. So clearly, these projects that were being done within the family were all still very much in the ideals of Quakerism, even if Cash's life didn't seem to really talk about it, and certainly his artwork didn't. In 1874, Coolidge submitted a patent application for what he called improvement in the process of taking photographic pictures. So if you just read that, it sounds like it might involve a camera mechanism
8:25 Holly Frey? or some other technical development, but you're way off base. Coolidge's idea was a little bit different. Here is part of how the inventor described his new invention. Quote, "In the accompanying drawing, A represents the head and B the body of the person whose picture is to be taken. Zero represents a sketch or drawing of a miniature body of any desired form or shape and with or without any additions. This sketch or drawing is held up in front of the person in proper position so that when the picture is taken, the head, A, will appear as forming part of or belonging to the miniature body, the large head and small body being taken at one time."
9:09 Tracy V. Wilson? So if you've ever stood behind a life-size drawing of a character that had an opening to put your face through to take a funny picture, that is thanks to Cash Coolidge. He notes in his patent application that other people had already used this cutout method to create frames for people. His patent was on the creation of the funny drawings that created caricatures. Coolidge is credited with creating some of the classic setups of this photo op that are still often used at carnivals today, like the strong man and a woman in a bathing suit. Coolidge started a mail order business to sell these photo props and that continued for years and brought in a steady income.
9:51 Holly Frey? Yeah, that really kind of funded his ability to do a lot of creative things during his life because he always had that money coming in. That same year, and for several years after, Coolidge's name appeared in a lot of newspaper announcements for things like lectures he was giving about drawing. And these had titles like "offhand sketching," suggesting that he was talking to people about a loose, casual style of drawing that he was very good at. These were also described as inimitable crayon sketches in one of the write-ups, where he was part of a full day of activities at the Free Academy of Rochester, New York. And he gave lessons in both art, as these suggest, and also penmanship as a way to make money.
10:33 Tracy V. Wilson? Coming up, we'll talk about Coolidge's comics and a somewhat surprising project, but first we will pause for a sponsor break.
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12:15 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?
12:59 Holly Frey? Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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14:16 Holly Frey? In his early career, Coolidge also drew cartoons for various publications. One of these, titled "The Accommodating Money Lender," appeared in the Rochester magazine, The Cosmopolitan, in 1887. And this is a four-panel cartoon, and each panel features a brief story of a man named Mr. Well-Todo. The first panel reads, quote, "Mr. Well-Todo, now living in the city, has received several calls from his former country acquaintances. Young Mr. Snoozer chanced in town in search of his fortune six months ago, got busted and borrowed a ten to get home with, never heard from since." The next two panels are similar stories of Mr. Well-Todo giving money to people who
14:59 Holly Frey? ask for it, and each of these stories end with "never heard from since," suggesting that the person never reached back out to pay back the money. But then, in the fourth and final frame, another person asked Mr. Well-Todo for money, at which point Well-Todo snaps and reduces the man, through a beating, to, quote, "a very small grease spot." And that frame also ends with the phrase "never heard from since." So, a little violent, but also funny, depending on your sense of humor.
15:31 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1892, Cash wrote a play, a comic opera about a mosquito epidemic titled King Gallinipper. A Gallinipper is a name for the mosquito species Soraforosiliata. It's a larger, more aggressive mosquito than other common North American varieties. According to newspaper write-ups, the play was about, quote, "the struggle between the mosquitoes and the mortals of New Jersey and Staten Island." In addition to writing the script, Coolidge was also the production designer, creating the designs for all the sets and costumes. A write-up in The Evening World, written by a reporter who attended a rehearsal, noted, quote, "There will be fetching costumes and seductive dances by swarms of King Gallinipper's
16:16 Tracy V. Wilson? subjects."
16:17 Holly Frey? I really wish I could travel back in time and see this play. Because though it sounds like it was something of a lark, it got a lot of newspaper attention, including a write-up in The New York Times, under the headline, "Adventures of Tourists in His Realm Presented by Amateurs." The paper's preview review read, quote, "A dress rehearsal of King Gallinipper was held last night in the theater of the Manhattan Athletic Club. This is the moving title of a musical burlesque to be given by members of the club and their friends, and for which Professor Carl Marwig has been wearing away his gray matter for weeks past, drilling choruses and inventing dances. The piece was written by Cassius M. Coolidge.
16:58 Holly Frey? It is proclaimed on the bill to be purely American, and the music is bright and pleasing. The story is of the marital and amorous adventures of certain human tourists in the realm of Gallinipper, king of the mosquitoes. The scene is laid in Box Hall Park, New Jersey, and in the mosquito palace. The first performance will be given in the club theater tonight, and the piece will be repeated tomorrow and Saturday evenings and at 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon." Much time, money, and labor have been expended by everybody connected with the entertainment, and the advanced sale of seats is already large. Over 60 persons take part in the play, among them being only a few professional people to steady the stage. Especially good is the skirt
17:42 Holly Frey? dancing of Miss Adelot, and there is a brisk song by Miss Lillian Poole, which the chorus helps to make effective. A serpentine dance by Miss Lambert will win much applause. The Honorable Walton Storm, widely suspected of having been an honest and lonely alderman, is one of the hardworking comedians. The opera is produced under the direction of William A. Cortland. 60 people is a lot for a play that is a lark.
18:11 Tracy V. Wilson? It's a lot in general, I think.
18:14 Holly Frey? Yeah.
18:14 Tracy V. Wilson? Unless you have like a musical with a huge company. King Gallinipper was not the only play Coolidge wrote. There were two others, Western Eris and La Moustique. Those two plays were only published, though. They were not staged.
18:29 Holly Frey? Yeah, I did not manage to get my hands on those to find out what they were about, but
18:34 Tracy V. Wilson? I'm curious.
18:35 Holly Frey? Given the plot of King Gallinipper, they sound like they were probably also hilarious. Later in 1892, Coolidge was commissioned to create a portrait of George A. Banker, a competitive track cyclist from Pittsburgh. The portrait, which was two-thirds life-size, featured Banker on his bike speeding past a grandstand, and it was a recreation of a photograph. A write-up in the Pittsburgh Dispatch noted that Coolidge was also, quote, "an enthusiastic cyclist," which might be why he was the artist selected for this commission. Just a month after that portrait was unveiled, the New York Evening World mentioned a cycling race that was to take place between Coolidge and a man named Percy
19:17 Holly Frey? Kent, describing the men as, quote, "two rival scorchers of eminence who have long been a terror to the tour committee." So Coolidge appears to have been more than just an avid cyclist. He was competitive and apparently quite good. He won that 17-mile race, completing It in an hour and 11 minutes and beating his rival Kent by a full five minutes. Another write-up that autumn also in the evening world noted of Cash's art that his, quote, "wheeling sketches and paintings are so much admired by both critics and amateurs." So one other completely random thing he was deeply involved in.
19:56 Tracy V. Wilson? The early 1890s were clearly a very creatively productive time for Coolidge. In the autumn of 1893, the Sun of New York ran a piece about a painting by Coolidge, and it appears to be the first mention of his artistic subjects being dogs playing poker, noting, quote, "He has just painted a picture of a game of poker, which is sure to be applauded by the devotees of that excellent nerve test." The article describes the painting in detail, and it has a fully developed story and character names. The Sun writes, quote, "Mr. Coolidge's poker party is composed of three fine Saint Bernards. They all bear distinguished names.
20:37 Tracy V. Wilson? On the right sits the dealer, William C. Whitney, behind a pleasing smile and a large stack of reds, whites, and blues. At his left is Grover Cleveland, sagacious-looking and betraying no sign in his face of the four aces that the onlooker may discover in his hand. At Grover Cleveland's left and facing the spectator in the center of the canvas is Joe Jefferson, whose stack is low and whose purse lying beside him on the table indicates that he had to go down into his kick. He and Grover Cleveland are both watching William C. Whitney with faces very full of human poker-playing expression." There's more description about the way the hand is playing out, and the writer of this
21:21 Tracy V. Wilson? piece is very complimentary of Coolidge. This painting was called "A Pat Hand," and it was displayed in the window of a business called Douglas and Cook's. Why Coolidge started to draw anthropomorphized animals is unknown, but it would become his most significant legacy.
21:41 Holly Frey? Yeah, he was not the only artist to do it, but he certainly got a lot of attention for his. In 1894, he painted another piece featuring the dogs playing cards in a painting simply titled "The Poker Game." This is one that is sometimes mentioned as having been licensed by cigar companies to make prints as giveaways. That makes sense because a lot of these dogs smoke cigars. This is actually a piece of information that seems a little bit fuzzy when you look at various different accounts of his life. Some say that he started out by painting dogs in poker games specifically for cigar boxes, but that 1893 example of a pat hand seemed as though it was a full-size painting that was just intended for display.
22:24 Holly Frey? The truth remains a little bit fuzzy here as there isn't any clear record indicating that it could have been a work for hire project for a tobacco company. One would think that if it were, though, there would have been some mention of that in that long write-up about it. He was painting dogs playing cards and smoking cigars, cigarettes, and pipes well before he was commissioned to make the series that became famous for those components. And we're going to talk about that series in just a moment.
22:51 Tracy V. Wilson? Though today, his name isn't widely known, it does seem like in his late 40s and early 50s, Cassius Coolidge enjoyed a significant degree of notoriety in New York. He appears in so many articles in newspapers all around the city and is even called "King Cassius" in one of them because he was so well-known across so many fields, and it seems he was quite well-liked. Some write-ups of a pat hand mentioned that Coolidge was busy with a lot of new projects, including a novel, which he had already written 500 pages of, but which did not yet have a name. He was also working on an illustrated book of biographies of nationally important people.
23:33 Holly Frey? To the best of my knowledge, neither of those projects was ever published. But the attention that a pat hand gotten newspapers, as well as the popularity of giveaway prints of the poker game boosted Coolidge's profile enough that he was asked to make more work in that same style. In 1903, Brown and Bigelow Printing Company in St. Paul, Minnesota contracted Coolidge to make calendar illustrations. Incidentally, that company still exists and you can still buy Coolidge prints from them. This is the beginning of his most famous works. While many people refer to many of the 16 paintings Coolidge created for this job with the title Dogs Playing Poker, each work actually had a separate and distinct title, and Dogs
24:16 Holly Frey? Playing Poker is considered the colloquial name of the series because nine of them feature dogs at a poker table. The most famous one, which gets labeled incorrectly all the time as Dogs Playing Poker, is actually called A Friend in Need.
24:32 Tracy V. Wilson? A Friend in Need features seven dogs around a poker table. In the foreground, a bulldog is passing the ace of clubs to a friend with one of his back paws under the table. The passed off ace will give that friend four aces. The other five dogs appear to be oblivious to this, save that one of them appears to be a cattle dog or maybe a Great Dane, and he's looking on from the back of the painting with an air of suspicion. Even the recipient of the helpful ace seems not to realize what is happening just yet. And that's really part of the appeal of these works. They feel like they capture a specific and often tense moment. And also, they are dogs.
25:16 Holly Frey? And also, they are very fun, yes. Who doesn't love a pooch playing cards? But two of the paintings in this series, called A Bold Bluff and Waterloo, are actually companion pieces that show that tense moment and then the aftermath of it. And we're going to talk about those two paintings and more after we hear from the sponsors that keep Stuff You Missed in History Class going.
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26:09 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?
26:54 Holly Frey? Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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27:40 Holly Frey? We mentioned the two companion paintings, A Bold Bluff and Waterloo, just before the break. So here is their one-two punch of a story. In A Bold Bluff, a Saint Bernard is shown making a bet on his hand, but all he has is a pair of twos. The painting leaves the viewer with no answer as to whether his risky move will pay off. But then Waterloo gives the answer as the same tableau is shown in the moment after all cards are laid on the table. The Saint Bernard that bluffed is raking in his winnings. And the best part of this painting, in my opinion, is the bulldog across from him, whose mouth hangs open in disbelief. It is the best picture of shock I've ever seen.
28:22 Tracy V. Wilson? Another of the poker series, His Station and Four Aces, depicts the end of a poker game as a train has pulled into the station and the conductor is urging the players to leave the car. A bulldog on the left side of the painting has a distraught expression because he would have won the game if it had been allowed to finish. His hand is showing four aces.
28:46 Holly Frey? There are a number of instances where a hand of four aces shows up in these paintings. But not all of the paintings feature a poker game. Sitting Up with a Sick Friend shows a thwarted poker game. The painting depicts a scene of five men dogs who, it seems, wanted to have a poker game, but they have been interrupted by two women dogs who have uncovered the apparent ruse of camaraderie for an ill acquaintance. Those two lady dogs, who are wearing wide-brimmed hats with plumes, so you know they're women, have their mouths open in a way that suggests that they are barking chastisements. One of them also has a parasol raised in the air and it looks like she's about to maybe clonk one of the male dogs on the head with it.
29:29 Tracy V. Wilson? Some of Coolidge's paintings in the series don't even feature a hint of poker, although they're still categorized under the Dogs Playing Poker umbrella. New Year's Eve in Dogville shows a lush scene of dogs in what appears to be a ballroom. Several dogs are coupled up and dancing and a lot of them are panting from the exertion. While most of the poker paintings contain no lady dogs, this one has a lot of them. They're wearing fancy hats and carrying purses as they dance with their partners. In the background, there are also tables filled with dogs that are celebrating away from the dance floor.
30:07 Holly Frey? Another painting titled "One to Tie, Two to Win" shows a dog baseball game, from a perspective that makes the viewer feel as though they are in the stands watching the tense scene play out. Another, called "Riding the Goat," shows a blindfolded dog on the back of a goat being led on a sort of parade before what looked like a king and queen who are also dogs in the background. It sort of suggests a court jester situation. And this one has also been associated with Masonic symbology, and Coolidge was a Mason, so it seems he may have worked in some visual humor for other Masons, while still keeping the scene general enough that non-Masons could still get their own humor from it.
30:47 Tracy V. Wilson? Other non-poker paintings in the series include "Ten Miles to a Garage," which shows a dog family whose car has broken down on the way to a picnic. "Breach of Promised Suits" shows a court case over a broken marriage engagement. "A Bachelor's Dog" shows a dog in an easy chair, smoking a cigar and reading a paper with a glass of what looks like beer. And "The Reunion" features several collies around a table, all smoking pipes and drinking.
31:18 Holly Frey? All of these paintings were used, as we said, for calendars, so they were designed to be intentionally appealing to a wide range of people, specifically the middle class, which likely saw similar scenes play out in their own human lives. And these paintings did appeal to people, so much so that the images were reprinted on a lot of other products beyond just the calendars. But Coolidge's contract did not give him any additional payment for additional usage of that imagery. If it had, he would have likely been set for life, because they were very popular.
31:53 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1909, Coolidge got married to one of his art students, who he had also hired as a letterer for his mail order character cutouts business. That was Gertrude Kimmel. This was kind of a May-December romance of sorts. Coolidge had never been married. He was 64 at the time, and Gertrude was less than half his age at 29. So while she was one of his art students, she was fully an adult.
32:19 Holly Frey? Yes, 100%.
32:21 Tracy V. Wilson? On June 27, 1910, Cash and Gertrude had a daughter named Gertrude Marcella, and she went by her middle name, Marcella.
32:29 Holly Frey? The year that Marcella was born had other significant changes for the new family. They moved to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and the family's finances got a lot leaner in the 19-teens because the mail order comic caricatures business had slowed considerably. So Coolidge was earning very little money. He also wasn't really painting anymore, likely because sometime around this period, he is said to have suffered an injury when he fell from the window of an abandoned house. He was apparently trying to chase some kids that were playing in it out of it, and that's when he fell.
33:04 Holly Frey? So confined to not doing a lot of like, full-body movement, he tried his hand at writing full-time again, but it did not take off and it didn't generate much money at all.
33:14 Tracy V. Wilson? Gertrude was motivated to find a career where she could make enough money to support the family, and she took courses to become a librarian. She was able to parlay that education into a position as a law clerk in Manhattan, and her income was the main source of the money that they lived off of. Cash became something of a househusband. He managed the family's home while Gertrude commuted to work every day. Eventually, in 1928, the Coolidges downsized to a smaller home in the Grassmere neighborhood of Staten Island. At that point, their daughter, Marcella, was still just a teenager.
33:51 Holly Frey? In 1934, Cassius Coolidge died at the age of 89. He was buried in his hometown of Antwerp, New York, at the Hillside Cemetery. His wife Gertrude was buried by his side, but not until her death 43 years later in 1977.
34:08 Tracy V. Wilson? According to a 2002 interview with Gwen Atchison, the town historian of Philadelphia, New York in 1991, Marcelle Coolidge donated a print of one of her father's paintings and left. That print became part of the town's Coolidge exhibit. And for quite some time, the Antwerp Library has had a small exhibit in the back of the building to honor the hometown artist. This includes a self-portrait of Coolidge, but the work is damaged. It's not in pristine condition at this point.
34:39 Holly Frey? Yeah, Marcelle would have been 80, I believe, at this point. And she kind of just popped in and was like, hey, I have one of my father's paintings. He grew up here.
34:46 Tracy V. Wilson? Here you go.
34:47 Holly Frey? Would the town like it? And they were like, sure. Although Coolidge is not today a famous name in art, he certainly does have ardent fans. In the latter half of the 20th century, Coolidge's dog paintings experienced a surge in popularity. Because they had been reproduced many times from their creation, they were accessible. And although a lot of the art world perceived them simply as kitsch, which by the way, I don't know if people know, kitsch is the German word for trash. They did gain really a cult following. In 1998, Sotheby's auctioned one of his paintings off for $74,000. So that's not the wild amount that you might see for other artists that we've mentioned
35:29 Holly Frey? on the show before, but it was certainly a significant amount of money. And then a few years later, in 2005, two of the dog poker paintings bundled together. So those two that tell two parts of a story, A Bold Bluff and Waterloo, sold for $590,400, which was, I would say, a huge amount of money for art. So although Coolidge hasn't ever really garnered a ton of respect in the art world, there are clearly people willing to pay the kind of money for his work that one might normally expect for more critically acclaimed artists.
36:04 Tracy V. Wilson? It's hard to pin down the precise appeal of Coolidge's work. Some of it might just be that people like dogs. Most of the dogs in Coolidge's paintings are stout or large breeds. So there's a lot of bulldogs, Saint Bernards and Great Danes. And of course, all of those are still popular as pets.
36:23 Holly Frey? Some of the appeal has been attributed over the years to the fact that Coolidge's paintings stick to old school gender stereotypes in a world that is unfettered from a need for refinement. Art historian Moira F. Harris said in an interview with the New York Times, quote, "His paintings of people look like dogs. I don't think his people are very good, but his dogs are wonderful. It's not Beatrix Potter. It's not anything gentle. It's a man's world." In an interview with his daughter Marcello when she was 92, she stated plainly that she didn't like her father's work, suggesting that there was a gender divide on its audience. She said, quote, "I don't like it. Girls don't like things like that.
37:05 Holly Frey? It was for boys and men." She also told the New York Times that she was more of a cat person and that cats would never play poker.
37:12 Tracy V. Wilson? But part of the appeal of these odd humorous works is that they hearken back to classic pieces of art that have been revered for decades or even centuries. Coolidge was said to have modeled a number of the figures in his dog paintings after depictions of people that he saw in classical works of art, particularly those of Caravaggio. His painting, The Card Sharps, does show some similarities to some of the poses and lighting of the dogs in Coolidge's work. So if you love the dogs playing poker series, you could be responding to the familiarity of a work of art that you have seen in a more serious art context,
37:56 Tracy V. Wilson? while your brain just kind of enjoys the levity and absurdity of dogs cheating at card games.
38:03 Holly Frey? And I wanted to end with this great quote by writer Dan Barry of the New York Times about Coolidge, who wrote, quote, "Through his art, he created a fairer world in which opposable thumbs were not required to hold a beer bottle, button a shirt, or lift that glorious ace off a card table's felt." I love dogs playing poker, so I don't clearly subscribe to his daughter's theory that women don't like them. That is Cassius Coolidge.
38:31 Tracy V. Wilson? Mm hmm.
38:32 Holly Frey? Who, you know, he deserves some um credit for the many things. I mean, I was kind of blown away when I found out that he's the one that invented, you know, goofy carnival cutouts. Brilliant, brilliant.
38:46 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah, when I first read through this outline and you said that he even patented an art, I was like, what in the world could that be? And then I got to that part and said, oh, that's delightful.
38:57 Holly Frey? It's really funny, and the drawing of that patent is very funny because it is not the large style ones that he eventually started working on. It's like a little like if you were holding a poster board of a man on a bicycle under your chin. It's very cute. Okay, I also have listener mail, and of course, I had to include dogs. I feel like I should say before I start this email, I should tell you that because Tracy and I have been traveling, we can't remember what we have and haven't read. And we had a long moment where we had to look at when this came in and whether I would have read it before. But it involves a dog, and that's what's important. This is from our listener Carol, who writes, hi, Holly and Tracy. I have been a listener since the early days with Sarah and Dublina and love the podcast.
39:39 Holly Frey? I was so excited to see the episode about Marjorie Merriweather Post because I recently chaperoned a trip with my daughter's Girl Scouts troop to visit Hillwood Estates. I really didn't know anything about the estate or about Post before we went, and now having listened to the podcast, can't wait to go back with greater understanding. The mansion is absolutely gorgeous with the collections of art, jewelry, and ceramics beautifully displayed. I didn't take many pictures because of wrangling a group of eight year olds, but I am attaching a picture of one of Post's dresses that I think you would both love. Like pretty much everything in the mansion, it is just beautiful. Next time you're in DC, it is well worth a visit. I want to say that I so appreciate hearing so many stories over the years.
40:21 Holly Frey? One of my favorite things is hearing how people's lives take unexpected turns and the understanding that we all live multiple lives in our one lifetime. It reassures me that I'll never have it all figured out. My pet contribution is our 10-year-old golden doodle Archimedes, who is the best dog ever and enjoys going swimming in the summer, snuggling everyone and expertly sussing out who will be the weakest-willed person to give him treats when dinner guests are over. Thank you for all you do to enhance our understanding of the world. Kindness regards, Carol. Okay, this dress is gorgeous. It's so pretty. It's one of those things that when you initially look at it, it's not a dress that has a lot of like detailing on it in terms of like embroidery or beading or anything.
41:06 Holly Frey? But the longer you look at, the more that you realize it is an absolute feat of design because it has these really cool like fold over knot details. It looks like it is velvet with fur trim. Gorgeous, gorgeous.
41:21 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah, I just opened it. It's really lovely.
41:24 Holly Frey? I want to figure out how to make that bodice. And I, listen, Archimedes, come over. I'll give you a credit card. You can buy your own treats. That dog is so cute. I sort of can't deal with it. I bet he could cheat at poker and no one would be any the wiser. And even if they were, they wouldn't call him on it because he's so ding dang cute that they want him to win. What an angel baby. He looks bigish, which I love a big goofy sweet dog. I bet that's an A plus cuddle when Archimedes wants to have a hug. Carol, thank you so much. Your beautiful pooch and this gorgeous dress warmed my heart. And I too, like I said, I want to, I want to visit Hillwood. While we were in Morocco, two of the people with us had mentioned
42:07 Holly Frey? that they had been to Hillwood, but they didn't realize all of the connections. I think that's why I was confused as to whether I read this. They had a very similar story of like, I went to Hillwood and I didn't realize. And then I read it. Now I want to go back. And I'm like, am I deja vu-ing this whole thing?
42:23 Holly Frey? Let's all go. We can plan a trip to Hillwood Estates. I definitely want to go, so it's on my shortlist. Thank you again for writing. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at [email protected] . You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
42:46 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
43:01 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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