Nationality: American

Birthdate: September 18, 1844

Date of Death: January 13, 1934

GMC Ranking:

Cassius Coolidge (aka Kash Koolidge) was an American artist, best known for his series of paintings "Dogs Playing Poker". He often signed his work Kash Koolidge in the 20th century for comic effect. Coolidge was born to abolitionist Quaker farmers, and was raised near Philadelphia. Like many American painters, he had almost no formal training as an artist.

His most famous paintings are "Poker Game", an oil on canvas work done in 1894 depicting dogs playing poker, and a series of similar paintings he made afterwards due to the initial success of the first painting.

The advertising firm Brown & Bigelow liked his 1894 painting so much they hired him in 1903 to produce a series of paintings featuring dogs playing poker and other activities, which they used for printing comical calendars and similar items. From 1903 to the mid-1910s, Coolidge created a series of sixteen oil paintings for the advertising firm, all featuring anthropomorphic dogs, including nine paintings of Dogs Playing Poker, a motif that Coolidge is credited with inventing.