Welcome back to my passion blog thread, where I analyze some of my favorite artworks. I love studying the seemingly unconventional methods that 19th and 20th century artists used to create new pieces, and this painting absolutely epitomizes the use of unconventional techniques to create a dynamic piece of art. The painting I am going to analyze for this post is extremely recognizable, as many have seen the dogs playing poker painting at some point. However, I find the context to which it was created as particularly interesting, and of course have a great appreciation for the details the artist added that enables the audience to relate to the portrayed scene.
A Friend In Need was painted by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge as part of an advertisement for a cigar company during 1903. The commission consisted of sixteen paintings, and every one of them portrays a different scene of dogs playing poker. Not many artists at the start of the 20th century experimented with the juxtaposition used throughout the dogs playing poker paintings, as Fauvists explored how to evoke emotion through the use of color while Cubists explored the use of geometric shapes. Being humorous compared to its Fauvist and Cubist counterparts, the sixteen paintings featuring dogs playing poker were ridiculed. However, the sixteen paintings have now become some of the most recognizable throughout art history, as Coolidge’s poker dogs with their pipes and whiskey glasses are now iconic.
A Friend In Need depicts seven dogs seated at a table, engaged in an intense poker game while smoking cigars. If you look closely, the gray bulldog is slipping an ace to his neighbor with his foot as the other dogs are exchanging glances across the table.
I particularly love this painting because it portrays a scene that viewers can find humorous and relatable. Being not the best at poker myself, the sly card exchange for one of the dogs to have four of a kind offers something that I can relate to despite the subjects being personified dogs. Some could also see this sly exchange as uncharacteristic of dogs, who are many people’s most loyal companions, making the painting more humorous.
The humorous yet relatable Friend In Need is remarkable not only for its juxtaposition that was unheard of at the time, but also for the painting’s twist of fate from being ridiculed to becoming part of one of the most popular series of paintings ever.
