At the Morven Museum and Garden, Impressionists of the Coast A show at the Morven Museum and Garden features work from artists who settled at the Shore from 1880 to 1940. The Jersey Shore attracted Impressionist painters starting in the late 19th century, along with other areas in the Northeast like Cos Cob, Conn., and New Hope, Pa. But while the artists" communities of Cos Cob and New Hope were rediscovered in the late 1970s and the 1980s, those of the Jersey Shore were "generally overlooked" by art scholars, according to Richard Boyle, a historian and former director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. An exhibition at Morven Museum and Garden in Princeton, "Coastal Impressions: Painters of the Jersey Shore, 1880-1940," to run through Sept. 29, may help clarify the area's artistic heritage. Roy Pedersen, who owns the Pedersen Gallery in Lambertville, is a co-curator of the show. He worked on the exhibition with Elizabeth Allan, Morven's curator; most of the more than 100 paintings and artifacts are from Mr. Pedersen's collection. The exhibition coincides with the publication of "Jersey Shore Impressionists: The Fascination of Sun and Sea 1880-1940" (Down the Shore Publishing), a book by Mr. Pedersen that took him more than a decade to write; Mr. Boyle contributed the foreword. Before Mr. Pedersen, 67, started to research New Jersey painting, he spent years exploring the modernists who worked in Bucks County, he said. "I had been studying New Hope artists and I thought, "Where are the New Jersey painters?" " he said. He believes his book is the first formal recognition of the Shore Impressionists, who were "extremely accomplished and important in American art, but historically overlooked," he said. "This group of artists functioned outside the political and academic framework of the time," he said. The result is that the culture of their communities, concentrated in the Manasquan River area and in places like Toms River, Island Heights, Long Beach Island, Atlantic City and Cape May, was never fully unearthed. The book and the exhibition, which occupies five upstairs galleries at Morven, split the artists who populated the Shore's artists" colonies into two generations. The early group, whose years in the area span roughly from 1880 to 1915, included Charles H. Freeman, Albert Grantley Reinhart and John White Alexander, all of whom have paintings in the show. They settled in towns including Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach after studying art abroad. The first generation "sought education outside the academy," Mr. Pedersen said, often in Europe. Instead of unpacking their steamer trunks in New York or Philadelphia upon their return, they decamped to settings free of formal artistic doctrine, he said. They looked for communities where they would be understood and appreciated. In addition to its relative remoteness, the Shore fit the bill because Impressionist works are traditionally "alive with light and water," Mr. Pedersen said. The area's beauty provided a setting that allowed the artists to further master their techniques. The second generation of Impressionists did their Shore painting from around 1915 to 1940, Mr. Pedersen said; more of them formally studied in the United States. They often enrolled at schools, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, that by then had members of the first generation among the faculty. Among the artists that Mr. Pedersen considers important in the second wave were the mother and daughter Impressionists Ida Wells Stroud and Clara Stroud. Together, they held exhibitions and classes at the Barn Studio, a work space on a property Clara bought in Brick Township in the 1920s. It became a hive of activity for local painters, and by 1939 took on the identity of the Manasquan River Group. The group still exists today, offering classes and shows, Mr. Pedersen said. Nine paintings by the Strouds are part of the exhibition. For Ms. Allan of Morven, "Coastal Impressions" has been a revelation. "I grew up in Colts Neck and spent summers at Avon-by-the-Sea, and I never realized these artists, some of whose names I knew, spent time in New Jersey," Ms. Allan said. Mr. Pedersen leapt at the opportunity to show the works at Morven, a museum inside a historic 18th-century house, because "no one has really grabbed hold of New Jersey regional art the way Morven has," he said, and he is pleased it is being received as an eye-opener. But he is not surprised that visitors" eyes had to be opened. Choosing to live and work in areas away from culture and wealth, like the Shore, was believed to strengthen your art. But unfortunately it did not bring immediate attention to your art," he said. Just as Alfred Stieglitz warned Georgia O'Keeffe that she must remain in New York if she wanted a successful career before she moved to Santa Fe, so did the major academies apply the same power of denial to those who were not within their circle. Ms. Allan began planning the exhibition with Mr. Pedersen three years ago, before Hurricane Sandy. The timing, she said, has delivered "an unexpected poignancy." People are thinking about these beautiful natural landscapes more than they did before. It's brought a lot of visitors, and a lot of nostalgia," she said. "Coastal Impressions: Painters of the Jersey Shore, 1880-1940," on view at Morven Museum and Garden, 55 Stockton Street, Princeton, through Sept. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Adult admission $6; $5 for seniors and students. For information, (609) 924-8144 or morven.org.