Lucas Fetches Lowbrow Icon
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, A Pat Hand, 1894. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Information about the collection of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art continues to trickle out in advance of its Sep. 22 opening. A video posted on Instagram and the museum's membership page feature several works, auctioned for mid six figures over the past decade or so, that are now part of the Lucas collection. One is Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's A Pat Hand , a 1894 painting that founded the kitschy genre of dogs playing poker. While Coolidge did many such paintings, the Lucas example appears identical in its details to the one Sotheby's sold for a record $658,000 in 2015 , under the title "Poker Game." Self-taught Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (1844–1934) was a sign painter and newspaper cartoonist who hit on the idea of funny pictures of dogs playing cards. He created the first examples in Rochester, NY, in 1894. A Pat Hand is thus one of the earliest and (insert air ...
