A friend in need

Can cats and dogs be friends? In opposite to the common opinion, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge suggested his positive answer when he created the true version of his most famous painting from the “Dogs Playing Poker” series, “A Friend in Need”

C.M. Coolidge, A Friend in Need, from Dogs and Cats Playing Poker

You see here, actually, dogs AND CATS playing poker.

We graciously invited Our little bro David Bowie the Cat to sit for the artist with Us

Also, We were so kind to help DB to pass the ace to the ginger puppy with Our noble tail. The legs of little ones were too short for the action

C.M. Coolidge, A Friend in Need, from Dogs and Cats Playing Poker, detail

You may notice this gap in the commonly known version of the painting:

Now you see that a bulldog puppy cannot pass the ace to the ginger one, their legs are too short!

It is evidence that Our version is the true one!

Also, Coolidge’s wife and daughter were unimpressed by Dogs Playing Poker; they were cat persons! Our true version was created to please them

Not to mention the widening of the “friend in need” notion:

A friend in need is a friend indeed! Species differences don’t matter for true friendship!

Thus speaks Zarathustra the Cat

P.S. You may ask why you, Zarathustra, being such a wise and enlightened cat, decided to improve a painting, that art critics think to be the quintessence of kitsch?

You know, friends, “kitsch” is a word created by the thin layer of humans pretending to be very hi-brow, to humiliate popular art and augmente the meaning of things not understandable for the wide audience. But with centuries passed, you may see that this notion is just human, all too human: the most kitschy image in the history of art, the couple of cherubs, was painted by genius Raphael in his masterpiece Sistine Madonna!

So, We’ll see in some centuries in what category will hi-brow human art-critics put “Dogs playing poker”! Things already began to change: in 2005, the originals of “A Bold Bluff ” and “Waterloo: Two” from the series were sold in Doyle New York’s Dogs in Art Auction for $590 400

You may also say: “The artwork was created for cigar promotion!”

Well, it was commissioned by a cigar manufacturer, but, you know, Borgias were famous art patrons and commissioned a lot of artworks, though they were a little bit more poisonous than cigars

BUY THIS ARTWORK as a CANVAS PRINT or as a POSTER or a JIGSAW PUZZLE

 

Comments

comments