WEBVTT - What's the Story Behind Dogs Playing Poker? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:07.680 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:13.840 Guess what will What's that Mango? 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.400 So you know that painting of dogs playing poker, like 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.280 the ones where dogs are drinking and playing cards. 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.200 You know, it's funny. I was at a thrift store 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.840 the other day with my son William, and I actually 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:28.960 think I saw a puzzle of that painting right there 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.040 in the store, so I should have bought it for. 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.720 This that's amazing. So I don't know if I told 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.720 you this, but like when I was in high school, 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.120 my dad saw that painting for the first time, and 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.200 he was so delighted by it, and he couldn't stop 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.000 talking about it. He was like, can you believe that 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.800 a bulldog is cheating? It's so ridiculous, it's crazy. He 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:51.680 just kept talking about it for a few weeks. And 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.520 then one day I came home and I looked above 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.960 my dog Lupinese dogbed, and he had framed a print 0:00:58.000 --> 0:00:59.720 of it and put it above her cage because he 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.360 won make sure she had some art in the house too. 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.119 Just so ludicrous. Yeah, it's so sweet though, too. I mean, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.200 your family's always been pretty dog obsessed. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.520 Though, right, Yeah, I mean, we always used to joke 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:14.600 that I would have to put a jacket on when 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.920 I entered the house because my dog was super fluffy, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.600 and my parents kept the house super cold so that 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.280 she was comfortable. Like it didn't matter if my sister 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.920 and I were comfortable, but as long as my dog 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.600 was comfortable, everything was okay. But thinking about that artwork 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.160 over my dog's cage and the fact that apparently it 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.720 sold at auction in twenty fifteen for seven hundred thousand 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:41.160 dollars or close to seven hundred thousand dollars like learning, 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.920 that made me want to look into the origins of 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.119 the painting war and learn more about the artists. So 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.920 that's what we're doing this week, talking about dogs playing poker. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:02:11.639 Let's dive in. Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.760 Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm joined 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.600 by my good friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and sitting behind 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.960 that studio booth, I was looking forward to this one 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:22.320 that day. I couldn't wait to see what Dylan would 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.960 be doing. And he is not disappointing. He is dancing 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.839 like I have never seen him dance before, and he's 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.760 blasting the song poker Face. I have to admit I 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.639 sort of called this. He is a huge Lady Gaga fan. 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.359 But that's our palain producer, Dylan Fagan. 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.440 I think he said he wanted to play that song 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.520 on repeat to inspire us, But I'm pretty sure the 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.519 disco ball and the strobe light are more for him 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:45.360 than for us. 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.920 There is no question about that, all right, mego, So, 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:52.679 I know we're both dog lovers, and we both like art, 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:54.880 and so I guess this episode is sort of the 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.280 Venn diagram of those interests. So let's talk dogs playing 0:02:58.320 --> 0:02:59.960 poker absolutely. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.600 So. The first thing I wanted to bring up is 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.560 that when you hear that phrase dogs playing poker, we 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.120 probably pictured the same thing, right, like that picture of 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.919 a bunch of dogs at a poker table, this bulldog 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.640 cheating by handing an ace under the table to his pal, 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.919 another bulldog. But dogs playing Poker isn't actually one painting. 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.640 It's kind of the shorthand that's applied to a group 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.040 of eighteen paintings, all by a New York artist named 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:29.280 Cassius Marcellus Coolidge or Cash Coolidge, and the painting that 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.360 we're most familiar with, though one with that cheating dog 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.880 is called a Friend in Need, but the one that 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.280 kicked off the whole series is actually called Poker Game. 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.520 It depicts four large, brown and white dogs sitting around 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.880 a poker table and one is smoking a cigar, one 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.760 has a pipe, one has a cigarette, and they've all 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.360 got a bottle of whiskey between them. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.240 Which that last part that's why you know it's ridiculous 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.240 because most dogs, I'm pretty sure jen drinkers. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.480 Yeah. Well, Poker Game was really well received at the time. 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.840 Some cigar companies reproduced it to decorate their cigar boxes, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.960 but this led to even more dog paintings being commissioned. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.040 So in nineteen oh three, the publishing company Brown and 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.040 Bigelow from Minnesota actually paid Coolidge to paint sixteen more 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:16.960 dog paintings. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.800 So, like, why did they need so many paintings of dogs? 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.640 Yeah, that's a good question, But basically they wanted to 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.680 slap them on like calendars or ads or posters that 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.920 sort of thing. And Coolidge's dogs, it turns out, were 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.680 pretty versatile. Like they weren't just hanging out drinking whiskey 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.000 and playing cards. Sometimes they were playing baseball, or football 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.560 or fixing a car. One painting is even of a 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.479 bunch of dogs in the courtroom pleading a case. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.719 So I guess my next question is what drove Cash 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.800 Coolidge to paint all those dogs doing human stuff? 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:49.920 I mean, obviously, in the case of the sixteen paintings, 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.440 it was the money and the commissioning. But ah, the 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.920 first one, Poker Game, he just painted that on his own, 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.960 and I didn't realize how long ago he started this series. 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.680 Poker Game was created in eighteen ninety four. While it's 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.240 unknown where he got the idea, it's not just like 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.600 thrown together haphazardly. The image is a composition that's inspired 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.039 by Caravaggio, George de Latour, and Paul Saisan, all who 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.000 have their own depictions of card game scenes, albeit with 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.680 you know, humans of their subjects rather than dogs. But 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.360 some have compared Coolidge's A Friend in Need with this 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:26.400 English artist Sir Edwin Lancier's painting. He did one called 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.640 Laying Down the Law in eighteen forty, and both works 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.040 feature dogs gathered around pensively, kind of acting like people, 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.920 card players in Coolidge's one, and lawyers and lanciers. However, 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.039 if you look at Coolidge's painting. It's kind of lighter 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.680 in tone, slightly more comical. And actually, I'm just going 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:45.560 to send you these images so you can see the difference. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.560 Yeah, you know, I mean, I see what you're saying 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.520 that Coolidges is slightly more comical. But I mean they're 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.320 both kind of silly paintings of dogs doing human stuff. 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.279 Yeah, I mean that it's true for sure, But now, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:04.080 I mean that's what's happening. Yeah. You know, while Coolidge 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.800 wasn't the first to do this type of work, he's 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.200 definitely the most prolific, and he kind of took the 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.039 idea and ran with it in a way that no 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:13.680 one else had. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.159 I feel like we need to back up, though, because 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.640 you know, there must be something interesting about the upbringing 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:24.159 of someone who eventually spends a lifetime painting dogs. So 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:25.440 let's look into his background. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.600 That sounds great. So Cash Coolidge was born September eighteenth, 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.600 eighteen forty four to a prosperous Quaker family in Antwerp, 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:36.640 New York. The family had a lot of land, they 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.000 were into farming, and so he grows up really well educated. 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.000 But he's not just a painter. Before he painted dogs, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.920 he'd already done all these other things. In eighteen seventy one, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.320 he founded the first bank in Antwerp. He opened and 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.240 then sold several pharmacies in upstate New York. He also 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.120 founded his hometown's first newspaper, the Antwerp News. So he's 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:58.440 really got a lot on his resume. 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.039 I mean, the guy is prettyccomplished. I didn't see the 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.720 bank thing coming, like, that's just such an interesting background. 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.719 Yeah, finance is really where the dog inspiration comes from. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.800 But in eighteen seventy three, Coolidge went to Europe and 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.560 that's kind of what kicked off his career as a 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.720 travel writer but also as an artist. He had a 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.840 travel column at the time for the Watertown Times called 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:26.440 Cash's Column two k's weirdly in the alliteration there. But 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.960 to supplement his income, he also worked as a cartoonist 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.160 for local newspapers, and he also gave penmanship lessons. But 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.000 he had this growing side hustle as a lightning sketcher. 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:38.880 And this is the thing they used to do where 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.200 people paid up to fifty cents for the privilege of 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.840 watching an artist do these super speed sketches of a 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:46.760 series of people sitting for portraits. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.000 I mean it sounds a little bit like those quick 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.920 caricatures you can see and get when you're on a 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:53.760 boardwalk or something like that, where they give you a 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.360 huge head and you're on a skateboard for some reason. 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.400 Yeah, it's always a skateboard. But one Rochester news paper 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.000 from the time actually wrote about this incredible event that 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.320 took place at a local Masonic lodge. 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.120 Did you say Masonic lodge? 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.840 Yeah, So we're going to get into that later. But 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.960 the paper said, the celebrated artist CM Coolidge, known to 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.640 the public under the nom de plume Cash, will give 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.720 an entertainment in offhand caricaturing, in which branch of art 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.960 he has no superior. We have had the personal pleasure 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.400 of witnessing mister Coolidge as skilled in this line, and 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.960 can most heartily recommend him to the public. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:31.560 I mean, it sounds like he was pretty successful. He's 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.520 probably the best big head on a skateboard artist around. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.040 Yeah, and this is even before his dog paintings. So 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:40.600 Coolidge had a pretty good career as an artist, doing 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.960 illustrations for newspapers and magazines. He was also doing things 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.640 like ads for shoe companies. He was making good money, 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.040 but none of his other work really sticks in the 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:51.920 American psyche the way those dogs sitting around smoking and 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.120 drinking and playing cards do. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.160 Yeah, I mean, there's something very funny about the paintings, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.199 but there's also something a little bit dark about them, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.840 Like it looks like the are getting away with something 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.120 each time, like they snuck out of their little dog 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.280 houses in the middle of the night to blow off 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.160 some steam without the supervision of their owners. Like you 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:11.600 get what I'm saying here, I do. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:15.360 And the fact that the dogs are gambling is very illicit, 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:16.600 especially for dogs. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:21.240 Yeah, yes, that's definitely controversial for dogs and for humans too. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.439 But you know, at the time, gambling was actually illegal 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.600 or technically illegal, And according to Lucy Sante's Low Life, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.920 an amazing book about New York's Lower East Side, in 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.920 the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, tammany hallback 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:41.040 syndicates quote handled protection for gambling establishments, so that meant 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.680 the highest ranked city officials in New York City were 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:48.600 facilitating these illegal gambling halls. This included Mayor Robert Van Wick, 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.000 and that was obviously controversial because at the same time, 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.040 people like the city's DA that was a man named 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.720 William Travers. Jerome had made it his personal mission to 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:00.800 end gambling the city. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.080 Which sounds like a huge conflict. So does that play 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:05.000 out publicly at all? 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.600 It definitely does. So you've got Jerome. He starts staging 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.280 raids on these gambling houses and making sure that he 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.240 gets as much publicity as possible by inviting reporters to 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.880 come along. Also, to make the whole thing extra dramatic, 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:22.960 he personally wields a hatchet to break down doors. So 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.040 pretty dramatic. That sounds ridiculous, Yeah, but it was all 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.760 over the papers and really in the zeitgeist at the time. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.240 Like this guy named al Adams. He was a widely 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.599 disliked policy king. He owned two breweries, one hundred saloons, 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.439 and two million dollars in real estate, and allegedly had 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.760 a steak in every gambling house between Battery and one 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.679 hundred and tenth Street. So he was eventually arrested. He 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.520 was sentenced to eighteen months in sing sing. But if 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.480 you're an adult in New York at the time, you're 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:56.360 probably reading about these gambling raids every day in the newspaper. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.360 It's kind of like the backdrop of everybody's life at 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.920 the time. But also, if you're a man, you're probably 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.880 even attending some of these underground card games, and so 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.960 Coolidge's works are kind of this wink to the viewer 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.600 because the card scenes are both depicting something illegal but 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.920 also playful and absurd, like the games are going to 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.800 take place whether you like it or not, and whether 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:19.600 dog owners know about it or not. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.320 I mean that's interesting. It's like Colige is saying chill 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:24.760 Out is just a card game right. 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.880 Well, and by using dogs as a stand in for humans, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.520 it all seems pretty non threatening. I mean, who's going 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.960 to raid a late night dog party? Like, let the 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.040 dogs be dogs, you know, we always say that. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.600 We always say that. I like how we're acting like 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.880 dogs drinking whiskey and betting with poker chips as dogs 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:42.800 being dogged. 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:44.400 Yeah, dog, let them be dogs. You know. 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.440 It's also worth men saying that the Dog's Playing Poker 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.480 series is very much a boys club, Like there's one 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.920 painting in the series where a bunch of angry female 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.600 dogs storm in to break up their husband's card game 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:59.439 like a marital police raid. And also coolidge state of 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.520 bachelor until his sixties. So as much as this might 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.480 have been like a light political statement, he was very much, 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.520 as our researcher Mary points out, a dude making art 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.720 for his fellow dudes, speaking of which we should talk 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.240 about the Masons. But before we do that, why don't 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.320 we take a quick break. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.000 Welcome back to part time Genius, where we're talking about dogs, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.400 playing poker and doing other human stuff too. Of course, so, mege, 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:38.640 I think you were going to tell us about the 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.679 artist Cash Coolidge's connection to Mason's or Masonic lodges. I 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.880 know you'd mentioned earlier that he used to do speed 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:47.120 drawing events at them. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.040 Yeah, so the Masonic stuff mostly goes back to one 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.640 of the paintings Coolidge produced as part of his commission 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:56.040 from Brown and Bigelow. It's called Riding the Goat, and 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.520 it depicts a blindfolded dog riding a goat in front 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.240 of this proving audience of other dogs. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.360 That's a little. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.520 Weird, Yeah, just the normal stuff you'd see at a 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.800 dog park. But unlike the poker game paintings, which are 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.920 more obviously relatable, the details Coolidge included in this painting 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.040 are pretty odd, Like some dogs are wearing special circular hats. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.400 They're sitting at high desks, they're recording everything. One dog 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.560 is wearing a pointy hat, a masquerade mask, and a cape. 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.040 And there's a blindfolded dog riding the goat. He actually 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.240 has a rope around his neck which is being held 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:31.400 by a cocker spaniel. 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.440 It's starting to sound a little eyes wide shut to 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:35.120 be honest with you. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.560 Yeah, it wouldn't be out of place in that movie 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.600 except for all the dogs. But the part of the 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.520 reason this is depicted this way is that cast Coolidge 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.199 was definitely in the Freemason so that part's not a secret, 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.400 but it's possible he included some mason imagery kind of 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:53.839 as a joke for his friends. There's a site called 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:57.439 dogs Playing Poker dot org, which is actually an amazing resource. 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.800 It's made by a computer programmer named Joe, and he 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.559 spoke to an anonymous mason who actually broke down the 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.920 painting symbolism for the audience, and so this is what 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.840 the mason said. Quote Riding the Goat depicts one of 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.400 the first three principal degrees of free masonry. The blindfold 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.640 is an important part of the first three degrees and 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.320 has a specific and symbolic meaning in each degree. The 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.840 rope around his neck is called a cable toe. Another 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.120 important Masonic symbol. The three dogs sitting to the left 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.040 at the desk indicate the three principal officers of any 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.040 Masonic lodge. The dog to the right is wearing a 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.320 red cap. In Scottish right Masonry, this cap is the 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.080 emblem of a kcch Mason. I'm not sure exactly what 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.520 that is, but clearly something of importance. And some dogs 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.440 are wearing blue caps, a symbol that represents a fifty 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.840 year Mason, meaning dogs or people I guess who've been 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:50.680 initiated fifty or more years ago. 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.840 I mean, it definitely feels very insidery. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.920 Yeah, but Kolitch also might have put in all that 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.320 imagery kind of as a joke for his fellow Masons. Basically, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.360 there were old rumors that Mason's rode goats as a 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.160 form of initiation, and by Coolidge's time, Mason's had turned 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.200 that accusation into an inside joke. 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.120 So I guess he just used this thing he was 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.880 getting paid to make as an opportunity to joke around 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:14.520 with his boys. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.840 Basically, but Coolidge was a real creative force, and he 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.720 did more than just paint dogs, doing things like he 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.320 really enjoyed making all kinds of art. And you know 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.960 those like plywood cutouts that you stick your face through. 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:30.960 Like like the ones you'd see at a carnival or 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:32.320 an amusement park something like that. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:37.000 Yeah, and boardwalks too, right, cash Coolidge patented those. He 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.840 called them comic foregrounds, and he created all these different 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.960 drawings to be used as the fake foregrounds. He actually 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.560 only patented a very specific version of these cutouts, ones 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:49.040 that had an image of a person with their normal 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.680 head but the sketch of a very tiny body. So 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.520 there were no strong man or bikini body ones, which 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.400 is ridiculous. But it's amazing to me that he's behind 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.880 those and also illustrated tons of books. He wrote a play, 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:03.480 he wrote a comic opera. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.600 I mean, this guy's all over the place, like from 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.440 starting a bank to writing an opera, Like if this 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:10.560 guy's done everything. 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.280 I mean it's also weird stuff like the opera was 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.000 called King gall Nipper and it was about the marital 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.080 and the morris adventures of human tourists in the realm 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.240 of the King of the Mosquitoes. 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.080 No, but It is kind of crazy that Coolidge was 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.120 so prolific and has done so many interesting things, but 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.000 the only thing he's really remembered for is his dog art. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.320 And actually nobody remembers him. We just remember the dogs. 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.640 Yeah, I mean, people do love dogs. But you know, 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.520 the nineteenth century was sort of a golden age of 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.640 dog art, and so this is the generation before Coolidge. 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.800 There's an artist named maud Earl and when Lancer who 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.480 we mentioned before, Arthur Wardle and John Sargent Noble, and 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.000 they were all artists commissioned by Queen Victoria to make 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.280 dog art. Apparently she liked many of us, was really 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:05.439 into dogs and particularly Pomeranians. But Lancer painted dozens of 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.399 Queen Victoria's pets and was rewarded with the Knighthood for 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.440 the work, so, you know, pretty fancy. Also, this thing 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.600 trickles down because the Queen's into it and royals are 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.720 into it, Suddenly the middle classes into it as well, 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.720 and by the end of the Victorian era, English homes 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.080 were full of reproductions of his dog paintings. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.560 I feel like this was just the golden age of 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.600 dog art. I mean, what a time to be alive. Mango. 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.680 Yeah. I mean the DVC review of this twenty twenty 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.520 three exhibition of dog art actually shed some light on 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.159 why dogs in particular are fascinators so much. This is 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.000 how the review puts it. Dogs are borderline creatures on 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.160 the threshold of two worlds, the human and the animal. 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.600 We see human qualities like faithfulness, empathy, and intelligence mirrored 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:55.840 in canine behavior, but we also admired dog's sensory superpowers, 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.200 and they're more instinctive connection with the wild. We've always 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.280 been infatuated with dogs because we consider them in betweeners, 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.480 half mirrors of our own behavior and half windows into 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:06.600 the mysteries of nature. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.280 I mean, I do like Coolidge's ability to sort of 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.679 tap into this existing human fascination but then put his 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:14.719 own spin on it. 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.840 I mean, his generation of work is kind of more 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.640 pop culture in a way. It's made for everyone, and 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.320 Mason's too. But the funny thing is that his wife 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.200 and daughter were never really into dogs. They were more 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:27.840 cat people. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.880 That's pretty ridiculous. I mean, it's funny though. Coolidge's work 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.439 have this light hearted element, but he's not painting for 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.520 the Queen, and I think a lot of people would 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.919 describe Coolidge's Dogs Playing Poker series as kitchy. 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:42.280 Can you explain that a little more? 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.679 Well, I actually have this in my notes. When you 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.000 go to the Wikipedia article for kitch, the first image 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.040 at the top of the page is of a friend 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.959 in need and the caption says a common example of 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:54.040 modern kitch. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.240 Oh, that's interesting, So how are we defining kitch exactly? 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.119 So? Merriam Webster defines kitch as something that appeals to 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.679 popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality, 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.959 attacky or lowbrow quality or condition. And like, you're insulting 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.439 my dog's artwork here, But yeah, I know, it's just 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.840 it's terrible. But it's also used ironically or with enough 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.320 self awareness that it can boomerang back around to actually 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:22.200 being a compliment. 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:23.680 How can it be a compliment? 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.679 Well, apparently the word emerged in the art markets of Munich, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.760 and this was in the eighteen sixties and eighteen seventies, 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.240 describing cheap and popular pictures and sketches. And it might 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.240 derive from the German word kitchen, which means to smear, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.800 or from the German verb vert kitchen, which means to cheapen. 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.479 But you know, the most interesting theory is that it 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.800 could be an inversion of the French word chic, which 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:51.720 basically means fashionable. 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.960 Oh, that's funny that kitch is like cheek backwards. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.800 And when it's used in certain context, kitsch is definitely 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.280 an insult and it can definitely feel cheap. And some 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.720 examples of classic kitsch are Santa Claus in the supermarket 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.960 pictures of poodles with ribbons in their hair, souvenir snow glow. 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:14.040 But then artists kind of inverted the idea and embraced it. 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.080 So think about people like Andy Warhol with his Marilyn 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.359 Monroe or Chairman Mau Prince, or Jeff Coons with his 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.720 balloon dog sculptures, those sorts of things. 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.000 So what do we think dogs playing poker is like? 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.080 Is it Jeff Coons or snow globe? 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.320 You know, it's kind of tough to say. In nineteen 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.439 thirty nine, the art critic Clement Greenberg wrote a famous 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.360 essay titled Avant Garde and Kitsch. It was done more 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.280 to influence American ideas about kitch than anything else. So 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:47.720 he basically says that urbanization and modern capitalism robs people 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.520 of the time and space they need to engage with 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:54.600 authentic art, and that kitsch or commercial art arose as 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.879 a cheap replacement. And this was to occupy people's minds 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.600 and the little freedom that they do have. And he 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:05.320