Sure sign that the summer heat is getting to me: I started wondering about the origin of the American classic: The Dogs Playing Poker print.

Turns out the icon has an interesting backstory. The man who designed the seminal print of canines gathered for a night of gaming and cigar smoking is the same guy who came up with the idea of painted displays such as headless musclemen and bathing beauties that you can put your face in for a photo. Who knew?

Some people go through their entire lives and never have an idea that affects the course of humankind and this guy had two gems, two!

In 1903, C. M. Coolidge, a jack of all trades, was commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars in a series of 16 paintings of dogs in human like scenarios; nine of them involved playing poker. Brown & Bigelow knew a good thing when they saw; they distributed hundreds of thousand copies of the paintings and helped etch them into American subconscious.

Art critics of course are befuddled by this. They say the prints are nothing more than paint-by-number water colors and velvet Elvis — the artistic equivalent of processed American cheese.

But is it that hard to see why the paintings have endured? They feature dogs for God’s sake, dogs enjoying themselves and for many of us, it just seems comforting that our best friend is holding aces and eights. There’s nothing abstract, no big concepts here. Perhaps we imagine ourselves at that table, in that cozy den, drinking, smoking the night away.  Perhaps we fantasize about how our own House Hound would be at the table. Does the Family Dog have a poker face? Isn’t that what art is supposed to do — get our imaginations going?

Turns out someone likes the paintings. In 2005, originals of “A Bold Bluff’’ and “Waterloo’’were auctioned as a pair to an undisclosed buyer for $590,400.

Sounds like a winning hand.