Dartmouth Campus
Paul Sample, American, 1896 - 1974
1945
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 21 × 30 in. (53.3 × 76.2 cm)
Frame: 31 × 40 in. (78.7 × 101.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Martin Hopkins Potter, Class of 1964, and Andrew Hopkins Potter, Class of 1991, grandson and great-grandson of President Hopkins, Class of 1901
2015.31
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
On view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, lower right: PAUL SAMPLE 45; Engraved on metal plaque on frame: DARTMOUTH CAMPUS / BY PAUL SAMPLE / PRESENTED TO / PRESIDENT ERNEST M. HOPKINS / BY THE / STUDENT BODY AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE / NOVEMBER 1945; numbered three times on reverse of frame liner, in graphite: 730; numbered four times on reverse of inner member of frame, in graphite: 630; numbered three times on reverse of outer member of frame, in graphite: 730
Label
Across the 20th century, Dartmouth increasingly acquired works by living artists in order to tell a more contemporary history of art. The artist-in-residence program was one of the ways in which the College built the collection and exposed students to working artists. Paul Sample, Class of 1921, was the third artist-in-residence, following José Clemente Orozco. This painting of Dartmouth Hall across the Green features the bustle of students moving between classes much as they do today. While the painting was originally a gift to Dartmouth President Ernest Hopkins from the student body, it returned to the College as a gift from President Hopkins’s family in 2015.
From the 2025 exhibition, From Mastodon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections
Course History
History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 2025
Exhibition History
From Mastadon to Mosaic: Building an Academic Art Collection in America, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 14, 2025 - Fall 2026
Publication History
Ernest Martin Hopkins, This Our Purpose, Hanover: Dartmouth Publications, 1950, the painting is partially visible in a 1946 photograph by Adrian Bouchard of Ernest Martin Hopkins, opposite the title page.
Provenance
Presented to President Ernest Martin Hopkins (1877-1964) by the student body of Dartmouth College, November, 1945; to his daughter, Ann Hopkins Potter Spahr; to her son, Martin H. Potter; given to present collection, 2015.
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