# Does the Original Painting of "Dogs Playing Poker" still exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-original-painting-of-dogs-playing-poker-still-exist/304631 "2005-05-19T20:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-original-painting-of-dogs-playing-poker-still-exist/304631/1 "2005-05-19T20:22:14Z")
Sure. It is symbolic of low brow culture. But the painting has been reproduced so much that you’d think the original had to be valuable. IF IT STILL EXISTS! Any idea if it does and if so, where does it hang? Who painted it? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-original-painting-of-dogs-playing-poker-still-exist/304631/2 "2005-05-19T21:43:30Z")
There is no one single painting of dogs playing poker. C.M. Coolidge painted a number of them, and in fact, two were recently sold at auction for a combined total of a little bit under $600,000. (The two were a set, _A Bold Bluff_ and _Waterloo_, depicting a St. Bernard’s wager and win.) The paintings were commissioned by a company called Brown and Bigelow around 1903. [Here’s](http://unclebobs.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/717606232/m/732108909/xsl/print_topic) a story about the auction and [here’s](http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu/~richeyje/dpp/gallery/browse.shtml) a gallery of Coolidge’s dogs paintings (they ain’t just playing poker). _A Friend In Need_ is probably the most famous and often parodied (I think _Mad_ just did a cover with Alfred in place of one of the dogs).