A trust fund that belonged to the daughter of the artist who painted the world’s most famous poker painting has endowed a California college half a million dollars.

According to media reports, the trust fund that belonged to Marcella B. Coolidge, daughter of artist C. M. Coolidge, has endowed $500,000 to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) to support lifelong learning for mature adults.

The monies are to support lecture programs and capital improvements at UCSD’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, a continuing education program for people aged 50 and older, the reports said.

Marcella B. Coolidge, who was a member of the Institute, died last year in San Diego at age 97, the reports said.

Her father, C. M. Coolidge, an artist best known for painting pictures of dogs engaging in human activities, was the creator of a famous series of paintings depicting dogs playing poker, the reports said.

The most famous of those paintings, called “Only a Pair of Deuces,” depicted a group of about a half dozen dogs of various breeds sitting around a poker table playing poker, the reports said. =A0 The scene has been reproduced in various forms throughout the world over the last century.

At an art auction in New York City in February of this year, the original “Only a Pair of Deuces,” which was part of Macella B. Coolidge’s estate, sold for $193,000, the reports said.

At the same auction, another painting by the artist that was part of the estate, called “A Breach of Promise Suit” and depicting a canine courtroom, sold for $32,200, the reports said.

At an auction in 2005, two other paintings by the artist depicting poker-playing hounds, “A Bold Bluff” and “Waterloo,” sold for a combined $590,400, the reports said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)