Poker Night

The Art of Poker

Two paintings by Albert Beck Wenzell (1864-1917) of Detroit, who studied art in Munich and Paris for seven years, and worked in New York City as an artist and illustrator for Life, Harper’s, Scribner’s, Truth, Metropolitan, Collier’s and Saturday Evening Post. “A Deal – In Washington: One That Is Not Political” (above) and “A Show Down in the 400: Blue-Bloods Playing for Blue Chips” (below) were done by Wenzell in 1895 for a series of lithographs. They were reproduced as postcards in 1909.

Four Queens

Postcards, playing cards, what a lovely combination.

“I’m Calling the Hand”

N.C. Wyeth illustration for An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill (1920), entitled “Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards” (original painted in 1916). The line being illustrated is “He shoved a pistol in the man’s face and said, ‘I’m calling the hand that’s in your hat.'”