Maxwell House advertisement from Life magazine featuring a painting by Paul Sample, "The Return"
Paul Sample, American, 1896 - 1974
about 1946
Offset print
Overall: 14 × 10 1/4 in. (35.6 × 26 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Hood Museum of Art Acquisitions Fund
2011.28.1
Publisher
Life Magazine, New York, New York
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Label
Here, the advertisers employ Paul Sample’s The Return as a comforting depiction of a soldier returning to his snow-covered hometown. Flanked by telephone poles, the receding path splits the composition and suggests the peaceful remoteness of a rural New England community in the winter, yet uncertainty, we suspect, lies ahead. After covering the war firsthand as a correspondent for Life magazine, Sample documents the postwar journey home with candor, in turn infusing the ad with an American longing for stability and peacefulness.
Below Sample’s image, the scene of a family enjoying coffee together pulls a cloak of domesticity across the ambiguity surrounding Sample’s soldier. Their coziness links coffee to happy family life, while the needlepoint sampler on the wall idealizes the home. The ad equates the beverage with American familial identity and returning soldiers alike.
From the 2024 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 118, Coffee and Tea in Art: A Brew of Cultural Symbolism, Solace, and Introspection, curated by Jeffrey Liu ‘24, Class of 1954 Intern
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 118, Coffee and Tea in Art: A Brew of Cultural Symbolism, Solace, and Introspection, Jeffrey Liu '24, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 11 - July 7, 2024
Exile from Eden, Graham Gund Gallery of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, March 26-July 22, 2012.
Provenance
Ebay, Inc.; sold to present collection, 2011.
This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.
We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu